Ben Stokes: Being No. 1 ODI team is not England’s driving force

England’s Ben Stokes at the nets on the eve of the second ODI at Pune yesterday. Pic/AFP

England have another couple of games on the current series to retain their No. 1 ODI ranking. However, as one would expect, that's not something that overly worries the visitors. Skipper Eoin Morgan stated that quite clearly after losing the first ODI against India on Tuesday, and Ben Stokes re-iterated it on Thursday.

"We look at it from a series point of view, that we'd be bitterly disappointed to lose," Stokes said. A 3-0 series win for Virat Kohli's men will mean that India becomes the top-ranked ODI side, replacing England.

"We deserve to be No. 1 because of our results and it's obviously a fantastic thing to have next to your name as a team, but it's not our driving force. Our driving force is the way we go about it and our attitude towards playing the game," he added.

"We know we're a much better team than that, but one thing we've been very good at is putting previous games to bed quickly. All our concentration now is on tomorrow."

With Joe Root absent, Stokes batted at No. 3 on Tuesday, in his first ODI game since his heroics in the World Cup 2019 final. But a 11-ball one-run knock isn't something that he would have expected. "There would be talk, whoever filled the place at No. 3 with Rooty not being here," Stokes said.

"People keep talking and I'll just go out and try to do what I've been asked to do. That's where my focus is, and the T20s are gone so I won't worry about that. But I did actually message Rooty and asked him about his mindset at No. 3, and he was pretty clear to me in saying ‘just play the way you play'.

"Just because he plays a certain way, it doesn't mean I have to do it like that. We kept it pretty simple, but it's just a slightly different role batting at No. 3 that my usual position in this team. I'm just potentially facing 100 balls compared to 60 or 70 like I normally do. I haven't got to change too much, just face a slightly different situation when I start my innings," he added.

England openers Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow gave their team a terrific start, but all the batsmen who followed failed to keep that momentum going on Tuesday. And that's something the visitors would be keen to correct on Friday, without changing the way they go about their batting.

Injured Morgan out, Jos Buttler to lead
Pune: England captain Eoin Morgan was ruled out of the final two ODIs against India because of an injury. Sam Billings, too, will be unavailable for the second ODI. Jos Buttler will captain England in Morgan's absence and Liam Livingstone will make his ODI debut.