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Jaiswal To Take Kohli's Number 3 Position? India's Likely Batting Order For 1st ODI vs ENG

Aashay Chopade

Yashasvi Jaiswal has made his ODI debut against England (Source:@CricCrazyJohns/X.com)Yashasvi Jaiswal has made his ODI debut against England (Source:@CricCrazyJohns/X.com)

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The T20I series is done and dusted, and it is time for the 50-over format to take over. The first game is being played at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur and the big news is that, Virat Kohli, he star Indian batter is not playing due to a sore knee. India have two debutants in the game in the form of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Harshit Rana.

The big question now is that what would be India's batting order in this game. They are bowling first as England decided to bat first after winning the toss, and it would be interesting to see how they shape up. 

Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill have been very successful as an opening pair in ODIs, and they are still the first-choice pair with Champions Trophy around the corner. Virat Kohli is the designated number 3, but with his unavailability and India preferring to go with Yashasvi Jaiswal, India might tweak their opening pair. Jaiswal has been phenomenal as an opener in T20Is and Test cricket and has played all his cricket at that position, so there could be temptation to make him open in this game.

However, it would mean demotion of one between Rohit Sharma or Shubman Gill, which does not align with India's Champions Trophy plans at the moment. Gill though bats at 3 in Test cricket, so it would be an interesting choice, but keeping in mind the stability of the batting order leading upto Champions Trophy, India are likely to make Yashasvi Jaiswal bat at 3 for this one-off game in place of Virat Kohli.

Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul And Hardik Pandya to form core of middle order

At number 4 and number 5 will be Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul respectively as two did brilliantly in those positions in World Cup 2023 while Hardik Pandya will take the number six position. Axar Patel is likely to bat at number 7 as he has been in better batting form in white-ball cricket than Ravindra Jadeja. 

Harshit Rana is a handy batter too along with his bowling skills and would take the number eight position while Shami with his power hitting skills can follow Rana. Kuldeep Yadav who has a good defensive technqiue will take the number 11 position and it would surely be an interesting chase in absence of Virat Kohli.