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Joe Root returns to England’s ODI team for the first 2025 match against India in Nagpur. He last played an ODI in November 2023.
Joe Root last played an ODI back in November, 2023. (Image: AFP)
England announced their playing 11 for the first 2025 ODI against India in Nagpur about 20 hours before the start of the match. Joe Root returned to the team for the first time since the 2023 World Cup in India and slotted in at his favorite position of number three.
Root is the only major addition to the team which otherwise is almost identical to the one that lost 4-1 to India in the recently-concluded five-match T20I series. The right-handed batter comes in for an extra bowling option of Mark Wood (or Jamie Overton) England used in the T20Is. Skipper Jos Buttler will, as he usually does in ODIs, demote himself to number five to make space.
Root has been in excellent white-ball form, having scored three half-centuries in the SA20. He has a pretty decent ODI record, having scored 6522 runs at an average of 47.60 and a strike rate of 86.77 in 171 matches. He has 16 centuries and 39 fifties in the format.
“Root is one of the great players of the game, so in all the formats here he’s obviously been a vital part of ODI cricket for England for a long time,” Buttler told reporters on the eve of the first ODI in Nagpur.
“He’s got loads of experience in ODI cricket, which would be great for some of the guys who haven’t played as much in our group. He’s been a vital player for England in all formats, and we feel like he’s got a crucial role for us to play in these games.”
This is the last bilateral assignment for both India and England ahead of the 2025 Champions Trophy. England would hope that Root’s arrival can provide some stability, spin, and most importantly, spin-prowess to their batting order after it was completely outplayed in the T20Is.
However, Root is yet to score an ODI century in India. He has played 16 matches here for 571 runs at 40.79, with a best score of 82 in 2013.
England’s Playing 11 For 1st ODI Vs India
Ben Duckett, Phil Salt, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (Captain and wicketkeeper), Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid and Saqib Mahmood.
