India v England: Benedict Bermange looks at the key stats ahead of the ODI series

As India and England prepare to face off in a three ODIs, Benedict Bermange looks at the key stats going into the series...

England have played eight bilateral ODI series in India. The only series they have won was in the 1984/85 season when they triumphed 4-1 in the five-match series.

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India have won five series – including the last four – and two series were drawn.

However, five of England’s last seven series have been won with their spectacular hitting, something England fans have not been used to seeing.

Only Australia and South Africa have beaten England, and they did so by the odd game in five. Despite that, England are still ranked fifth in the ICC ODI rankings. A 3-0 victory for the visitors though, would push them above India.

India have lost only two of their last 14 bilateral home series, although they haven’t always had it their own way. New Zealand were beaten 3-2 in October while the previous year South Africa came away with a 3-2 victory.

In the last two years, England have posted 299 or more 12 times but have lost five of those games. India, meanwhile, have managed 299 or more seven times and lost only twice.

Virat Kohli had an astounding year in international cricket in 2016 and will be looking to extend that magical run into 2017. Here are his stats from 2016:

In addition:

His record is especially strong when batting second in ODI matches:

Those 16 centuries batting second are second only to Sachin Tendulkar’s 17 in the second innings of the match – in 141 fewer innings!

In successful ODI chases, Kohli averages 90.10! Ironically that isn’t the highest average ever by anyone playing a significant number of innings. It isn’t even the highest in his own team. Here is how Kohli and previous captain MS Dhoni have performed in successful ODI chases:

Kohli is currently ranked second in the world in ODI cricket, just 13 points behind AB de Villiers.

The England team has shown a great turnaround in the last few years:

Here is how their batting has improved over those three years in terms of runs per wicket and runs per over:

Eoin Morgan averages 29.00 in his last 18 matches with just two fifties. However, with England winning that has been allowable! He is a streaky player though and it could just take one good innings to get him back into his groove. For example, here were his scores in 10 successive ODI innings over 2014/2015: 1, 62, 5, 0, 4, 121, 0, 2, 0, 0.

Then he got hot in the summer of 2015 with successive scores of: 50, 88, 71, 113, 0, 38, 85, 62, 92.

Despite missing the tour of Bangladesh, Alex Hales scored 743 runs at an average of 61.91 with a strike rate of 101.36 in his 14 ODIs in 2016. He hit three centuries and four fifties. Only one England batsman has scored more than those three ODI centuries in a calendar year and that was David Gower back in 1983.

Jos Buttler only averages 26.42 in nine ODIs against India. However, having ended the tour of South Africa last January with one run in three innings – including two golden ducks - he has averaged 69.83 with a strike rate of 127.35 in his 11 ODIs.

Joe Root had his best year in ODI cricket in 2016. He scored 796 runs at 61.23 at a strike rate of 91.81 overall which included two centuries in South Africa early in the year and then five successive scores of fifty or more over the summer series with Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Since coming back into the side at the start of the 2015 summer season, Adil Rashid has been England’s leading wicket-taker by far in ODI cricket (48 for him at 33.13 and Willey next with 29). His overall economy rate of 5.59 compares pretty well to England’s overall economy rate of 5.70. He is also England’s top-ranked bowler in the world rankings in fifth place.

Over the same period of time, Moeen Ali’s economy rate is 5.11 – the best of any England bowler to have played more than one match. His wickets have come at 48.72 though – similar to his recent Test bowling average.

Yuvraj Singh is an interesting pick for India. He averages 48.62 with a strike rate of 100.76 against England in 34 ODIs, helped by his 2008 series in which he scored two centuries. However, his last ODI appearance was on 11 December 2013 – more than three years ago! India have played 60 ODIs since then.

Despite all his success in the longest form of the game, Ravichandran Ashwin has not had it all his own way in ODI cricket of late, taking just 11 wickets at 37 apiece in his last nine ODIs. However, his last ODI came against Australia at Brisbane on 15 January last year.

Watch the first ODI between India and England from 7.30am on Sunday, live on Sky Sports 2.

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