India took a 1-0 lead in the series with a four-wicket win over England in the first ODI on Thursday. In this match, the Indian team performed all-around and started preparations for the Champions Trophy. In this match played in Nagpur, Axar Patel scored a brilliant half-century while batting at number five. Thanks to his innings, the team came close to the target. Now Indian captain Rohit Sharma has also praised the star all-rounder.

Captain praised Axar

Hitman said - We needed a left-handed player in the middle. We know that England has some spinners who will bowl to left-handed batsmen and we wanted a left-handed batsman to be on the field. In the last few years, we have seen how much Axar has improved as a cricketer, especially with his bat and today we got to see it again. We were under a bit of pressure at that time, we needed a partnership, and Gill and Axar batted well.

Akshar hit fifty in 46 balls.

Axar Patel, who came to bat at number five after Shreyas Iyer was out, supported Shubman Gill and the two had a huge partnership of more than 100 runs for the fourth wicket, which was broken by Adil Rashid in the 34th over. He bowled left-handed batsman Akshar Patel. He returned after scoring 52 runs in 47 balls. He completed the third half-century of his ODI career in 46 balls.

What happened in the match

In this match, England won the toss and decided to bat first and scored 248 runs in 47.4 overs. In response, India scored 251 runs for six wickets in 38.4 overs and won the match. Batting first after the ODI World Cup 2023, England have lost seven out of eight ODIs. Now Team India will be eyeing to take an unassailable lead with a win in the second ODI. The match will be played in Cuttack on February 9.

Indian team is focusing on preparations for the Champions Trophy

After the match ended, captain Rohit Sharma said that his team wanted to remove the flaws before the Champions Trophy. It started with the victory in the first ODI over England. He said - nothing special. Overall as a team, I just want us to keep making sure that we keep doing the right things as much as possible. There is nothing special that we want to try to achieve. We want to try everything possible in terms of bowling, batting, and things like that. So we were largely successful in doing so today. However, I felt that we should not have lost those wickets in the end. Players are trying to put pressure on the bowlers and such things can happen while doing so.

What did Shubman Gill say after the victory

Shubman Gill also played an important role in this victory against England. He ensured the victory of the team by playing an innings of 87 runs in 96 balls. He completed the 14th half-century of his career in 60 balls. After the match, the vice-captain said- I was just trying to stay positive. There was a little bit of potential for the fast bowlers with the new ball. So the thought process was to not go on the backfoot too much and play some good cricket shots.

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