Team India stars pose with police officials in Nagpur ahead of IND vs ENG 2025 1st ODI [In pictures]

Several team India stars, including all-rounder Hardik Pandya and batter Shreyas Iyer, posed with top police officials at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. The incident took place ahead of their first ODI against England on Tuesday, February 4.

Indian Police Service officer Lohit Matani, who is currently the Superintendent of Police for Bhandara district in Maharashtra, shared pictures of him shaking hands with and welcoming the players at the stadium.

In the pictures, Matani was accompanied by several of his colleagues as they posed alongside Pandya and Iyer. An unnamed Team India management staffer was also seen in one of the photographs.

You can see the pictures here:

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India come into this series after thrashing England 4-1 in T20Is

India convincingly beat England 4-1 in the T20I series preceding the one-dayers and will be brimming with confidence. Indian spinners played a big role in the T20Is and will be expected to continue in the same vein of form here as well.

However, both India and England sported rather different squads for the T20Is, with several heavyweights being added to both sides for the 50-over format. While Virat Kohli and skipper Rohit Sharma return for India, Joe Root is back for England.

England will want to dominate proceedings right from the offing in this series, although they will be wary of the threat India's spinners can pose to them. They will be careful enough to respect the spinners when they bowl well and take them on only when they send down poor deliveries.

The series precedes the ICC Champions Trophy, slated to be held in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates later this month. Both teams will treat this series as ideal match-practice for the eight-nation tournament.

India, who will play all their matches in UAE due to political tensions with Pakistan, have been placed in Group A alongside their neighbors Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as New Zealand.