Virat Kohli Misses Out as Jaiswal, Rana Handed Debuts In 1st ODI vs England

India have handed One-Day International (ODI) debuts to batter Yashasvi Jaiswal and pacer Harshit Rana in the first game of the series against England in Nagpur. There's no place for Virat Kohli in the XI as he misses out due to a knee injury, as confirmed by skipper Rohit Sharma at the toss.

"Unfortunately, Virat isn't playing; he had a knee problem last night," Rohit said.

However, it was England skipper Jos Buttler, who won the toss and elected to bat first on a warm day. England will hope to turn things around after a 4-1 defeat in the T20 International (T20I) series. In fact, their ODI record against India too is not that good, having lost four of their last five matches.

England had already announced the XI a day before the match, with Joe Root returning to the side after well over a year

England XI: Ben Duckett, Phil Salt, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood

Jaiswal has not played a single 50-over game in almost three years. His last appearance was in 2022, when he scored just 4 off 2 deliveries. However, according to the line-ups, he will open the innings with his skipper Rohit, as he does in Test cricket, with Shubman Gill batting at four.

India XI:  Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami

What the captains said

Jos Buttler: We will bat first today. Nice thing going in the dressing room, looking forward to these ODis and we're happy to welcome back Joe Root. The morale has been good, everyone's good and the Baz has looked after us well. We're playing against a top-side in their conditions, a tough test going ahead into the Champions Trophy. We're playing 3 pacers and an extra spin-bowling all-rounder.

Rohit Sharma: We wanted to bowl first, but it doesn't matter a lot. Need to be aggressive with the ball at the start and then need to do well later. Nice to get some time off, it's a fresh start and this is a great chance to do well. It's very important to get some game time, try and maximize whatever opportunity we have. Jaiswal and Harshit are making their debuts.

Pitch report by Deep Dasgupta and Graeme Swann

"Traditionally, this hasn't been a high-scoring ground, the reason being the dimensions. 69m and 68m square boundaries, 75m straight boundary. We're playing on a red-soil pitch and it looks good for batting. It's rock hard, there's a bit of grass, but there's no moisture and it's dry. Not a lot in it for the bowlers, but this being a red soil pitch, spin will come into play later on. It's a good cricket pitch, and a high score can be expected. There's some breeze blowing over and the spinners would like to bowl from that end. Dew could be a factor and the captain winning the toss could ideally look to bowl first."