Revealed: Why Virat Kohli Isn't Included In India's Playing XI vs England For The 1st ODI

Indian batter Virat Kohli was left out of the playing XI for the first ODI against England on Tuesday. The 33-year-old was replaced by Shreyas Iyer, as confirmed by Rohit Sharma.

Kohli had suffered a groin injury during the third T20I against England. Although Rohit didn’t reveal the nature or extent of the injury, it is assumed that the niggle forced the management to rest him for the game.

Rohit won the toss and opted to bowl first. He felt that the cloudy conditions and overcast skies would allow the bowlers to dictate the play early on.

“We are going to bowl first. There is some grass cover and it’s overcast as well. I guess sun will be out in sometime. We want to have a score in front of us. Shami, Bumrah – those guys can swing the ball.”

“It’s important to take wickets upfront and put brakes on the scoring. We understand the importance of playing overseas, we want to do well outside India. Today is no different. We have five batters, two all-rounders. Kohli is not playing this game, Shreyas will bat at 3,” Rohit said at the toss.

Meanwhile, this is the first of the 3 ODIs that will be played and India will be high on confidence having won the T20I series by a 2-1 margin.

England (Playing XI):

Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler(w/c), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Craig Overton, David Willey, Brydon Carse, Reece Topley

India (Playing XI):

Rohit Sharma(c), Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Prasidh Krishna

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