England vs India 2018: 5 players who may not live up to the expectations

The ongoing ODI series between two present-day superpowers of International Cricket, India and England has stirred a lot of excitement and anticipation. Both the sides look very strong and have their own sets of strengths and weaknesses, things that both the captains would want to address.

At the moment, England seem to have a lot of issues that they need to look at, the main and most important one being Kuldeep Yadav, who seems to have spun the minds and the game of English batsmen. With 5 wickets in the first T20I and 6 wickets yesterday in the first ODI, he has left the England batsmen absolutely clueless.

India, however, might want to look at ways to strengthen their fast bowling lineup, that lacks experience. Umesh Yadav, leading the pace attack, needs to take care and guide his fellow pacers Hardik Pandya and yesterday's debutant Siddharth Kaul.

Among the big names that are part of the squads, let us look at 5 players who could miss performing up to the mark and not meet the expectations of fans...

#1 Suresh Raina

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Although Suresh Raina has lived up to his record of scoring a minimum of 300 runs in every season of the IPL, he doesn't seem to carry that flair and lustre anymore, that he once carried. His shots seem half-hearted and he doesn't seem to be in complete control them. The persona Suresh Raina had been playing, whether you call him Mr. IPL, T20 specialist or anything else, seems to have been lost.

The stylish and aggressive middle-order batsman who could come in at 4 or 5 and play an elegant innings while building partnerships, as well as come in at 5, 6 or 7 and hit the big shots at will and clear the ropes effortlessly, is far from what we see of him today. Scoring 445 runs at an average of 37.08 and a strike rate of 132.44 in IPL 2018 may be indicative of an average batsman, but considering the way other players have played in the same tournament, players who had always performed worse than Raina, and are doing way better now, it is not a great news for Raina and CSK fans.

One bad series, and it may be a complete bye-bye to him and selectors might want to look at Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayadu as replacements.

#2 Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya has become extremely popular with the Indian public, and fans want him to be part of every Indian playing XI, irrespective of the format. He has shown tremendous improvement and has honed his skills to become the world-class all-rounder he today is. However, he does have technical issues to deal with, and being in England, the fast bowlers will put his technique to test and he will have to challenge himself to bat for longer periods of time in testing conditions.

His bowling too is yet to be tested on seam-friendly surfaces. In conditions where other fast bowlers would look to swing the ball and try and make the ball do a bit, he might have to struggle due to his inability to generate genuine swing. Till now, he had been mostly bowling in Indian conditions and hardly did one get to see him bowl a full quota of overs, but in England, he will have to bowl 10 overs in ODIs more often than not. The escape route he used while being hammered when playing in India, was to pitch it short and get some bounce, but that might not work out very well on English pitches. Looking towards the World Cup next year, Hardik will have to adapt to playing in English conditions and develop himself into a more resilient all-rounder.

#3 Eoin Morgan

In spite of being the man behind England's redemption in limited overs cricket post-2015 World Cup, Eoin Morgan has not proven to be a match winner or run-machine for England. He has been great as a captain and has taken the England team to great heights, but it has not reflected on his performance as a number 4 batsman. He has scored hundreds and fifties but has not been very consistent.

The lack of dependability has made him look like an ordinary middle-order batsman. His struggles against spin would be well known to India and the spin twins of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav would do their best to trouble Morgan and get him out cheaply. Chahal managed to pick his wicket in the 1st ODI after he started to smash a few deliveries, following a slow start.

#4 Ben Stokes

After all the hype and praise coming around about the elegance and prowess of Ben Stokes as an all-rounder, and many a time, just as a batsman due to his sheer ability to rip apart world-class bowling lineups, he seems to have hit a new low, being unable to hit a single fifty in 13 innings of IPL 2018. He managed to score a meagre 196 runs at an average of 16.33 runs, which is very unbecoming of the English all-rounder and his reputation.

He has not matched the class and performance of his own pre-2017 controversy self and does not look dangerous on the field at the moment. The ineffective 50 he scored yesterday against India in the 1st ODI was not at all the kind of innings any follower of the game would expect from him. He seemed incompetent against the spinners and had barely managed to score at a strike rate of 50, while Jos Buttler, the man in sublime form since IPL 2018, came in, played his shots, got to 50 and returned to the pavilion.

#5 Moeen Ali

Moeen Ali has been quite a revelation, starting as a top order batsman for England, who used to open alongside Alastair Cook and do the job of hitting the ball hard, while Cook used to maintain his calm innings. Then came the dark period of World Cup 2015, when England failed to make a mark and got eliminated like underdogs, post which, Moeen Ali was reinstated as a leading off-spinner, who would play all the formats and also serve as a lower order batsman with the job to finish off the innings.

Ali has been doing a pretty good job since then, but he seems to have lost the ability to play long innings, which might be needed from him in case English top order batsmen succumb to Indian spinners. He did come in after a similar situation in the 1st ODI, but was unable to build a much-needed partnership and was one of the only 2 batsmen who got out to fast bowlers. Thus, Moeen might not be able to stick at the crease and construct a partnership while Indian spinners are at their job. With the ball too, he has been fairly effective against non-subcontinental sides, but its a different ball game against India altogether. Being good players of spin, Indian batsmen will be tough nuts to crack for Moeen Ali.