Virat Kohli out of first ODI against England due to knee injury

Dubai: Indian superstar Virat Kohli has been left out of the squad for the first One-Day International against England at Nagpur on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, Kohli not playing due to a right knee problem that happened last night. We want to come out and be aggressive at the start and see what we can do thereafter. This series presents us fresh opportunity to come out and play well. Jaiswal and Rana make their debut,” skipper Rohit Sharma said after England won the toss and elected to bowl first. “We wanted to bowl first,” he added.

India have also dropped Rishabh Pant and have opted for six-man bowling attack, including three all-rounders — Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja. Indian pace ace Mohammed Shami makes his return to the ODI squad after recovering from knee injury.

As expected, England ace Joe Root is back in the squad.

“We have got a nice thing going in the dressing room,” Jos Buttler says. “Nice to have Joe Root. Morale is good. Baz is good at making sure guys are in good headspace.”

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

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