England lose to India again to suffer 3-0 clean sweep

Phil Salt made starts in all three one-day internationals but finished with a top score of 55

Third one-day international, Ahmedabad

India 356 (50 overs): Gill 112 (102), Shreyas 78 (64); Rashid 4-64 & Wood 2-45

England 214 (34.2 overs): Banton 38 (41), Atkinson 38 (19); Axar 2-22, Harshit 2-31

India won by 142 runs

Scorecard

England's miserable tour of India ended with another heavy defeat as they slumped to a 3-0 one-day international series loss.

They were bowled out for 214 in 34.2 overs to suffer a 142-run defeat in Ahmedabad.

Tom Banton, who has officially replaced the injured Jacob Bethell in England's Champions Trophy squad, played nicely for 38 but there were poor shots from a number of batters including Phil Salt and Ben Duckett.

The latter was visibly struggling with an apparent groin injury that he suffered in the field - and England will assess the damage to determine his involvement in the Champions Trophy, which starts on 19 February.

There were also poor spells with the ball, where England's attack looked one-dimensional and potentially light as Banton replaced all-rounder Jamie Overton.

India were bowled out for 356 off the final ball of the innings, with Shubman Gill making 112 from 102 balls, while Shreyas Iyer added 78 and Virat Kohli 52.

Leg-spinner Adil Rashid was superb in claiming 4-64 - his best figures in an ODI against India - and seamer Mark Wood bowled well in taking 2-45.

The tour was Brendon McCullum's first as England's white-ball coach and the ODI series clean sweep defeat follows a 4-1 defeat in the T20s.

England's opening game of the Champions Trophy is against Australia in Lahore on 22 February.

England's batting woes continue

England's batting across this tour has been disappointing. Across the eight matches they have been bowled out six times and lost nine wickets in the other two.

Duckett and Salt put on 60 for the opening wicket in another encouraging partnership, before the former skewed Arshdeep into the air.

Salt continued but was again dismissed tamely as he looked to upper cut over the ring fielders in exploiting the powerplay.

Joe Root and Banton, who was playing his first ODI for England since August 2020, got England into a decent position at 126-2 but from there it was a familiar story.

The spin of Kuldeep had Banton caught behind, before Root was bowled by Axar Patel.

India returned to pace as Harshit forced Jos Buttler and Harry Brook to play onto their stumps.

From there it was a matter of when England lost, rather than if, and Liam Livingstone advanced past Washington Sundar in another tame dismissal.

There are familiar questions for England to answer. One that is not going away is how they can improve against spin with 42 wickets lost at an average of 17.6 across this tour.

How long England occupy the crease is another issue. Since the start of 2022 they have lost a wicket every 29.8 balls, which is the second lowest among Test-playing nations.

With 10 days until their next game, there is work to do and quickly.

India batters show England way

At the end of the powerplay India were 52-1. That is by no means spectacular but a lesson England could perhaps learn from.

Saqib Mahmood and Mark Wood started well and perhaps deserved more rewards than the wicket of Rohit Sharma, who was caught behind off Wood, but Gill and Kohli were happy to soak up pressure.

It was pretty much boundary or dot for a lot of the new-ball spell but that gave India a platform to build and accelerate throughout their innings.

It also meant they could take advantage of a weakened England bowling line-up.

Root and Gus Atkinson were used as first change by Buttler and were expensive in conceding 47 from five overs and 74 from eight overs respectively.

Rashid was at his brilliant best and he had Kohli caught behind before bowling Gill.

Shreyas was caught behind too, but the pick of the bunch was a superb googly to bowl Hardik Pandya.

At one stage India looked set for a total beyond 400 so it was to England's credit that they rallied to take 6-81 in the final 10 overs and restrict the hosts.

However their balance of high pace and part-time spin, around Rashid, continues to leave England vulnerable.

'We were outplayed by a better team' - what they said

England captain Jos Buttler speaking to TNT Sports: "The game probably followed a similar pattern to the tour. We threatened them but we were outplayed by a better team.

"The learning is the way that we want to play our cricket. The style of cricket we want to play is the right one but we haven't been able to do it well enough. As players, individually we need to see what we need to do better to play better as a unit

"We were up against a really good side that keep challenging you with different options, spinners, seamers, it's a tough challenge. We threatened throughout the tour but not for long enough."

India captain Rohit Sharma speaking to TNT Sports: "Very pleased. When we came into the series we knew there would be challenges that we would have to face. When we were faced with them, we found a way to get over them.

"In terms of skills, there was near perfect skill throughout the tournament. A championship team looks to get better at every game, so that's what we'll do."