Jason Roy injury opens door to James Vince return for decider against India

England’s third and deciding one-day international against India, in front of what is likely to be a pro-India crowd in volume if not numbers, is going to be not only an examination of their collective temperament but the reserve strength of their batting.

Jason Roy, in dropping a catch during England’s series-levelling win at Lord’s on Saturday, cut - or, in the more dramatic parlance of the press release, “lacerated” - the little finger of his right hand, and is expected to be replaced by Hampshire’s captain James Vince, jettisoned from England’s Test team in May.

As Alex Hales is out for several weeks with a torn muscle, this is just the kind of test of squad strength that every country needs - if not actively seeks - ahead of a World Cup. In the last year Roy and Jonny Bairstow have become England’s finest ODI opening pair, but it is highly likely to be Bairstow and Vince who launch England’s innings in this grand decider - which is a World Cup dress rehearsal - before India’s spinners appear.

Vince has earned an England recall after responding to the urging by England’s national selector, Ed Smith, to score big hundreds instead of selling himself short. The questions are whether his recall should be in the 50-over format, and whether he deserves a chance in front of Dawid Malan.

Malan, Middlesex’s captain, was England’s reserve batsman for the second ODI at Lord’s, but was then reassigned to the Lions’ four-day game against India A at Worcester. The priority was that Malan should make red-ball runs before the five-Test series, following his lean run for Middlesex in the championship.

The answer has to be that Vince deserves a chance if Roy fails his fitness test this morning because he is better equipped to open the batting than Malan. Vince’s technique has never been in question, not even when Australia’s fast bowlers were fizzing it past his head last winter, only his shot-selection; whereas Malan is a middle-order batsman of limited footwork which could be exposed by India’s new-ball bowlers, especially if Bhuvneshwar Kumar, their highly skilled swing bowler, resumes his place after missing the first two internationals.

Vince, Hampshire’s No3, has opened for England four times in ODIs (his only appearances) and averaged 26. This season, after being dropped for the first Test against Pakistan, he cannot be accused of squandering his talent with sloppy shots because he has made a first-class double-hundred, and 171 in a 50-over county game, to suggest some ingots of inner steel.

Malan can count himself amazingly unlucky never to have played an ODI after scoring almost 5,000 runs in limited-overs cricket (other than T20s) at an average of 41.8 and a strike-rate twice that. There again, fate has compensated: he can count himself lucky to have been selected for a decent run in Test cricket with a first-class average of 37, some six points below his contemporary, Somerset’s James Hildreth.

For England the key to winning this decider, as it was at Lord’s, will be whether their pace bowlers can take early wickets. David Willey, Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett did the job by taking a wicket each in India’s first dozen overs, which left new batsmen to play themselves in against England’s spinners - a different game to taking spin on when set, even for India’s highly accomplished stroke-players.

In addition to winning this decider - as they did when their last ODI series in New Zealand stood at 2-2 - England will want to keep India’s captain, Virat Kohli, in check in front of what could be as many as 10,000 adoring, even adulating, fans.

Kohli has been in normal majestic mode in his few white-ball innings without making the big score which would demonstrate that he has cracked English conditions, at least against the white ball. After this ODI series he has only the Indians’ four-day game against Essex before the first Test at Edgbaston in which to acclimatise, as his Surrey sojourn had to be cancelled owing to his neck injury in the IPL.

In the course of India’s tour Kohli’s scores have been making an ominous progression, from 0 and 9 in the two T20 internationals in Ireland, to an unbeaten 20, 47 and 43 in the T20 series against England, to 75 in India’s victory in the Nottingham ODI and 45 in the Lord’s defeat. In both ODIs so far, rather surprisingly, England’s spinners have got him, a leg-before for Moeen Ali and a rare stumping for Adil Rashid, who spent a sizeable part of his England Under-19 career bowling at Kohli who led India Under-19s.