Gill, debutant Rana put on a show as India make short work of England

Shubman Gill (87) was unlucky to miss out on a century but powered India to a comfortable 4-wicket win over England in the first ODI at Nagpur on Thursday.

Gill received great support from Shreyas Iyer (59) and Axar Patel (52) after debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal (15) and captain Rohit Sharma (2) fell early. The solid middle-order effort made the chase of a 249-run target rather easy as India secured victory with 68 balls to spare.

Earlier, another debutant, Harshit Rana, bagged three wickets to dismiss the visitors for 248.

Rana, who claimed his ODI cap along with Jaiswal ahead of the toss, bowled a maiden in his second over but went for 26 runs in his next as Phil Salt smashed three sixes and two boundaries.

But the 23-year-old hit back, first removing Ben Duckett, then dismissing Harry Brook for a duck. He also claimed the wicket of Liam Livingstone to make it a memorable debut with the ball. Ravindra Jadeja, too, bagged three wickets.

Captain Jos Buttler, who won the toss, top scored with 52 runs, while Jacob Bethell made 51. Openers Phil Salt and Ben Duckett had given the visitors a dream start, scoring 75 off the first 8.5 overs.

Jaiswal took a stunning catch, running backwards, to remove Duckett for 32 after Salt was run out for 43. Mohammed Shami, who returned to the ODI fold after missing 14 months with an injury, claimed a wicket.

India are without star batter Virat Kohli, who has a knee injury. India and England will play two more ODIs before leaving for the Champions Trophy in Pakistan and the UAE.

Brief scores: England 248 in 47.4 overs (Jos Buttler 52, Jacob Bethell 51, Phil Salt 43, Ben Duckett 32, Ravindra Jadeja 3/26, Harshit Rana 3/53) lost to India 251/6 in 38.4 overs (Shubman Gill 87, Shreyas Iyer 59, Axar Patel 52, Saqib Mahmood 2/47, Adil Rashid 2/49)