Rejuvenated India aim to seal series

A fair bit has changed in England's lineup since they last beat India in an ODI, almost four years ago. Of the four J's – Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Jos Buttler – only two remain, with Jacob Bethell being a suitable alphabetical replacement. In those years, Bazball has risen and fallen.

Back then, Buttler was freshly taking on the ODI reins. Harry Brook has now potentially begun his all-format tenure. Yet, despite a 4-0 T20I win, scrutiny on McCullum persists, just as it does with his Indian coaching counterpart.

India bagged their first win of the tour, largely thanks to an England top-order collapse that left them at 80/5. Joe Root and Liam Dawson admirably recovered, but the larger issue remains how frequent these collapses have become.

For the second ODI, England's priority is clear: don't lose the way while batting and give ample bowling cushion to Jofra Archer. On two sides of the Root-Dawson rearguard, they lost 5-19 and 4-30.

For India, Shubman Gill's form was a big uptick, as was Axar Patel's all-round return. Eyes will be on Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, who scored a combined 17 runs in the first game.

What: England vs India, 2nd ODI
When: July 16, 2026 at 5:30 PM IST (11 AM local time)
Where: Sophia Gardens, Cardiff

Warm and breezy, high of 28 degrees, no rain predicted. Across the last four ODIs at the venue (2023-2025), 280 was crossed in six out of eight innings.

England: Went with three seamers and two spinners, a combination likely unchanged given Dawson's batting contribution. Bethell should continue as Ben Duckett's opening partner.

Predicted XI: Jacob Bethell, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, Josh Tongue, Adil Rashid

India: Gill limped out on 80 but should be fit. Gurnoor Brar had to abort his run-up; no update yet. Replacement options: Prince Yadav or Arshdeep Singh.

Probable XI: Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul (wk), Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar/Prince Yadav/Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah

• India last played an ODI in Cardiff in 2014; Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are the only two from that XI in the current squad
• Joe Root averages 70.69 since January 2025, with four hundreds and seven fifties in 19 innings
• Since the 2023 World Cup, only New Zealand bowlers have a better strike-rate than India (28.6 vs 29.9)

"When you see your middle order score runs like that and finish off the job, you get a lot of confidence as a captain and top order batsman" – Shubman Gill

"We try and make selections based on the pitch. If we'd got a few more runs, our spinners might have tied them down better. But it comes back to that 5 for 20, which wasn't ideal" – Harry Brook