England beat India in ODI series thanks to Root century

Eoin Morgan, England’s one-day captain, did Joe Root, the Test captain, a massive favour by leading England from 1-0 down to a handsome 2-1 win in the ODI series.

Had England lost both white-ball series against India - both the 20- and 50-over formats - the hosts would not have gone into the five-Test series as favourites, for all the benefits of home advantage. England won by eight wickets with remarkable ease.

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England, under Morgan, keep on evolving. Their batsmen have become more consistent yet no less bold, their opening bowlers Mark Wood and David Willey have acquired a penetration with new and old ball which they have previously not possessed, while Adil Rashid is turning into a match-winner.

If the ECB were to post England All-time Test and ODI rankings constantly updated - or would that be too much like marketing, and interest people? - Rashid would now be installed as the best ODI spinner England have ever had. That is because he has the best strike-rate of the three England spinners who have taken more than 70 ODI wickets, with one wicket every 33 balls - almost two wickets, that is, for every ten-over spell.

Graeme Swann took a wicket every 36 balls. John Emburey, in an era of lower totals, conceded only 4.1 runs per over to Swann’s 4.5 and Rashid’s 5.5 per over. But strike-rate is the thing, to keep England’s targets within bounds, and Rashid could not have done than dismiss three of India’s top six, two of them brilliant players of spin and Kohli the modern master.

More memorable than any man of the match award was Kohli’s thunderstruck expression after Rashid’s legbreak had landed on leg-stump and hit the top of his offstump: the ball of this series if not summer. In his more than 200 ODIs, this was the first time Kohli had been clean-bowled by a legspinner, so unerring had been his reading of the rotations. When Kohli reaches 71 in ODIs, he is twice as likely to reach a century as to be dismissed without one.

Since taking the unprecedented and unpopular step of becoming a white-ball specialist, for the time being, Rashid has become even more effective, consistently bagging two wickets per game - and because he bowls mid-innings, those wickets are usually top-order batsmen. Moeen Ali, meanwhile, at the other end, is economical if not penetrative.

Before Rashid unveiled his wiles from the pavilion end, Wood and Willey - both finding a little sideways movement - kept India down to 32 runs from the first ten overs, their lowest Powerplay since the last World Cup. Morgan’s decision to bowl first was soon justified, and because England bowled so well - both their opening bowlers and spinners - the scoreboard pressure when they batted, and India’s two wrist-spinners came on, was minimal.

England’s only qualms were that Liam Plunkett and Ben Stokes had off days with the ball. Stokes, over-doing and under-pitching his offcutter, would have gone for three sixes in the 49th over if it had not been for Plunkett’s athleticism at long-on, but he compensated by running out Shikhar Dhawan with a direct hit. Plunkett’s bowling on his home ground tended to justify, rather than contradict, Yorkshire’s decision not to retain him.

Sun succeeded the thick cloud which had watched India’s innings. Batting in any event became easier, or maybe that was because India’s pace bowlers pitched far too short and Jonny Bairstow, after the briefest reconnaissance, raced away with seven fours off nine balls - until a cross-seamer bounced a bit and he dragged to mid-wicket. His new partner, James Vince, was called by Root for a single that was ambitious, possibly over-ambitious, but that sums up England’s attitude to one-day cricket since the last World Cup.

Another fast start made all the difference: England did not have to make haste against Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav but simply wait for the bad balls. It was almost a role-reversal: India were shackled by England’s spinners, then England’s batsmen played India’s spinners comfortably, all a far cry from tradition or even recent practice.

Root continued from where he had left off at Lord’s, reading Kuldeep from the hand and scoring with low risk, always busy and acquisitive. Morgan took on the job of seeing off Suresh Raina’s occasional offspin, and played ever higher risk shots against Kuldeep, to the point where India will probably select the left-arm wrist-spinner for their Test squad but not automatically for the eleven.