The Indian cricket team, led by Virat Kohli, would aim to move past the humbling six-wicket defeat against England in the second One-day International (ODI) and complete a hat-trick of series wins against the visitors in the third and final ODI in Pune on Sunday.

In the second ODI, England, on a belter, smacked 20 maximums in the 337-run chase as the Indian bowlers could not find their rhythm. In the bowling department, Kuldeep scripted an unwanted record when he conceded 8 sixes, most by an Indian bowler. He gave away 84 runs after conceding 64 runs in the first ODI. And, so did Krunal Pandya, who gave 72 runs in six overs with an embarrassing average of 12 per over.

Owing to the poor bowling, Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar could be included in the playing XI for the decider.

From team’s perspective, it would be impossible to ignore Yuzvendra Chahal’s inclusion in the playing XI.

In terms of batting, India need to get back to their way of accelerating in the last 15 overs and consolidate on the score.

Captain Kohli, who hit two successive 50 plus scores, would be keen to carry his form and convert the start into a big score and end his century drought.

The skipper has, however, made it clear that he is not looking at milestones.

“I never played for 100s in my life, that’s probably why I ended up getting so many in such little time.” “It’s all about contributing to the team cause. If the team doesn’t win when you get three figures it doesn’t mean anything. You’re not going to sit back at the end of your career and look at numbers, it’s more about how you played the game.” For the record, his last century came in August 2019 in this format.

On the pace front, while India would go-ahead with spearhead Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan or Shardul Thakur.

Meanwhile, England would be bolstered by their Friday’s performance and the biggest positive would be the return of form of Ben Stokes, who otherwise struggled on many occasions on the entire tour.

Teams (from):

India: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), KL Rahul (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Md. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur.

England: Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (captain), Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Livingstone, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, Mark Wood, David Malan. Covers: Jake Ball, Chris Jordan.

Match starts at 1.30 PM.