Jos Buttler joins an elite club and becomes only the second England player to…

England’s Jos Buttler (ANI Photo) Jos Buttler on Tuesday added another milestone to his decorated international career by becoming only the second England cricketer to play 200 one-day internationals. The veteran wicket-keeper batsman reached the milestone during the opening ODI of the three-match series against India at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Only former England captain Eoin Morgan, who finished his career with 225 ODIs, has played more matches for England in the format. Buttler made his ODI debut against Pakistan in Dubai on 21 February 2012 and has since established himself as one of England’s best white-ball players. He has played a key role in England’s rise as a dominant limited-overs side over the past 13 years, including their historic ODI World Cup triumph in 2019. The 34-year-old also captained England in white-ball cricket before handing over to Harry Brook. England elected to bat first after winning the toss at Edgbaston. Skipper Brook said the surface looked good for batting and hoped it would help the spinners later in the game. “We’re going to bat today. It looks like a good surface, we don’t know what’s going to happen, but let’s see our chances with the bat first. Hopefully we can get some spin in the second innings,” Brook said at the toss. India captain Shubman Gill admitted that he would have preferred to bowl first but welcomed the return of several senior players to the squad. “Yeah, definitely most of the seniors are back. We have Virat Bhai, Rohit Bhai, KL and Boom back in the team. So it’s going to be huge for us,” Gill said. Virat Kohli returned to international cricket after nearly seven months when he missed the home ODI series against Afghanistan due to a leg injury. India fielded three top seamers in Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna and Gurnoor Brar while Shivam Dube made his first ODI appearance in almost two years. England XI: Jacob Bethell, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, Josh Tongue, Adil Rashid. India XI: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Gurnoor Brar, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna.