In the end, the British invasion never quite occurred.

England came, they soared,

they were conquered. India don't need to take any lessons from Eoin Morgan's
young bucks, certainly in their own conditions, and were more clinical in the first
two matches to seal the series with one to play.
The final match in Kolkata will be India's last ODI before the Champions Trophy. Nos.
3-6 in the batting order all have centuries in this series but a couple of scores for
the openers would help Virat Kohli firm up plans for his first title tilt as captain. They
have won chasing and defending, though England pushed them hard both times.
Kohli will ask for more of the same as he looks to extend his mastery over England
captains to 7-0 on tour.
Morgan has twice said that England have not played at their best, which says
something about how expectation levels have risen. Scores of 350 for 7 and 366 for
8 will win plenty of 50-over matches but England's bowling has buckled too easily
under India's onslaught. England have not lost a series by a margin of more than
one match since the World Cup and Morgan will want to keep it that way.
Form guide

India WWWLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

England LLWLW
In the spotlight

KL Rahul is embarking on one of the most difficult journeys in the modern game:
attempting to become a three-format international opener. His talent is abundantly
clear, given he has already made Test, ODI and T20 hundreds for India (the latter
batting at No. 4), but his two innings in the series so far have failed to reach doublefigures. Rohit Sharma might be favoured to return for the Champions Trophy after
injury but Rahul would prefer to make the selectors' decision a little trickier.
The focus is starkly on England's bowlers, after twice conceding 350-plus totals and
twice seeing the opposition recover from losing early wickets by raising a doublecentury partnership. David Willey picked up both India openers in Pune but he has
been wicketless in five of his last six ODIs and last bowled a full allocation of ten
overs against Sri Lanka in June. His left-arm swing is perhaps a more valuable
commodity in home conditions but England need to work out how to best utilise
him.
Team news

Reports said Shikhar Dhawan went to a hospital after landing in Kolkata on Friday to
get his left thumb checked. There were no injury concerns though and he was the
first to bat in the nets on Saturday. His form could be a worry, however, and Ajinkya
Rahane may get a look in if India want to change the opening combination. Manish
Pandey will be itching to get game time, too, but a packed middle order will not let
him through easily.
India: (probable) 1 KL Rahul, 2 Shikhar Dhawan/Ajinkya Rahane, 3 Virat Kohli (capt),
4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Ravindra
Jadeja, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
Sam Billings is likely to open, as he did in his previous appearance in Bangladesh,
due to Alex Hales' forced exclusion. Adil Rashid did not bowl much in the nets and
looks like missing consecutive white-ball internationals for the first time since his
return in 2015, if England persist with four quicks.
England: (probable) 1 Jason Roy, 2 Sam Billings, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5
Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Liam Plunkett, 10 David
Willey, 11 Jake Ball
Pitch and conditions

The last ODI at Eden Gardens witnessed Rohit Sharma's record 264. This time,
though, it could be the only hope for pace bowlers to get purchase in this series.
The Ranji season saw teams shot out for 59, 81, 90 and several sub-200 scores. On
Saturday, the pitch wore a greener look than the one in Cuttack and bowlers will
hope they are not plundered for over 700 runs again.
Stats and trivia

England have played three one-day internationals at Eden Gardens and lost
them all. Their last visit, for the World T20 final, also ended in defeat.

In Cuttack, MS Dhoni became the fifth batsman to score 9000 ODI runs for
India (he also has 174 for the Asia XI).

Yuvraj Singh went almost six years between his 13th and 14th tons - his
previous hundred came at the 2011 World Cup.

During his 104 in Cuttack, Eoin Morgan went past Marcus Trescothick to
become England's fifth-highest run-scorer. Kevin Pietersen is next on the list,
only 16 runs ahead.

Quotes

"There is no pressure on us that the series has been won. But when you play
international cricket you want to win each and every match. One thing is that we
will enjoy the match more because the pressure is not there."
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was not worried about Sunday's contest
"He's a fiery batsman, he's an awesome player. If he gets the role of No. 2, that'll be
great. He's a great guy to bat with - runs hard, plays strong shots and that's exactly
what we look for at the top of the order, just to set the tone."
Jason Roy is pumped about the prospect of batting with Billings

"There is no hard-and-fast rule of understanding the game over a number of games.

You can get a great understanding of the game after 10 one-dayers; it doesn't have
to be 60, 70, 80. The sooner you learn the team benefits from it. This was another
case of the same thing: all the 11 guys believing that we can win from any situation.
Dravid, whose decision to resign from the captaincy in 2007 paved the way for
Dhoni to take over, said it would take Dhoni some time to get used to playing under
someone else, but didn't think it would be a major issue.

Kohli was not oblivious to his team's profligate bowling in the back-end that saw 115
runs conceded in the last 10 overs. "There was a bit of consistency issue in the last
15 overs as bowlers," he said. "We had done well up to the first 35 overs, but were a
little wayward in the last 15. We will address it and try to improve in the next
game."
Sridharan Sriram, the former India left-arm spinning allrounder, will mentor
Australia's legion of slow bowlers on their upcoming Test tour of India. Sriram has
worked with Australia's spinners on previous occasions, including on last year's tour
of Sri Lanka and in the World Twenty20 in India earlier in 2016, and he was also
engaged for the tour of Bangladesh that was ultimately postponed.
Sriram will travel with the squad to Dubai on January 29 for their training camp at
the ICC Academy, and will then work with the side through the four-Test tour that
follows. Australia have picked four specialist spinners for the series - Nathan Lyon,

Steve O'Keefe, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Swepson - as well as spinning allrounder
Glenn Maxwell.

Monty Panesar has been recruited by Cricket Australia as a spin-bowling consultant

for their tour of India next month, after spending his winter as a club cricketer in
Sydney.
Panesar, 34, played an integral role in England's memorable series win in India in
2012-13, claiming 17 wickets with his left-arm spin in the final three Tests to help
engineer a come-from-behind triumph.
However, he made the last of his 50 Test appearances at Melbourne during the
2013-14 Ashes, and was not considered for selection for England's recent 4-0 defeat
in India, despite making a return to first-class cricket for Northamptonshire last
summer following a spate of well-documented personal issues.
Panesar's recruitment to Australia's ranks came at the behest of Pat Howard, Cricket
Australia's high performance manager, whose team were whitewashed 4-0 on their
last tour to India four years ago, and recently succumbed to a 3-0 loss in similarly
spin-friendly conditions in Sri Lanka.
According to the Australian, Panesar will travel to the Centre of Excellence this week
to work with left-arm spinner Steve O'Keefe, as well as Matt Renshaw, the opening
batsman who was cleared of concussion on Sunday, following the incident that led
to his withdrawal from action during the third Test against Pakistan.
"Having Monty come up is a nice way to kickstart the squad's thinking about playing
in India," Howard told the newspaper. "We want the batsmen to be thinking about
what the bowlers will be trying to do to them over there and Monty can engage
them that way as well as with the bowlers.
"Phil Jaques will run the sessions with Matt, Monty and SOK, Phil has some nice
ideas about how to challenge the batsmen," Howard added. "In Australia we love
big turners, but the successful bowlers like [Rangana] Herath and [Ravi] Ashwin are
more likely to get you lbw or bowled than any other way, their accuracy and their
length is absolutely outstanding."
Panesar was one of nine wickets for O'Keefe during their ongoing Grade match
between Manly and Campbelltown Camden at the weekend.
"He was brilliant on the weekend and must think cricket is an easy game after
taking 9 for 54," Panesar said.

the guys on the same thing - If you are focused on the goal, the target you want to
achieve, you don't necessarily need to think too much about the game - in terms of
your personal runs or where you stand at the game," he said.
"Sri has worked with us on a number of occasions now all across our pathway
system and he is currently in Dubai with our Under-16 team providing his expertise
on sub-continental conditions," Pat Howard, Cricket Australia's executive general
manager of team performance, said.
"He knows our players very well and has a wealth of knowledge on the conditions
that our players will face in India."
Sriram's presence on the India tour has been preferred to that of spin
consultant John Davison, who has a good working relationship with Lyon but travels
only sporadically with the team.
Australia have also called on England left-armer Monty Panesar to help them
prepare for the India series. Panesar has been playing club cricket in Sydney this
summer and is set to travel to the Centre of Excellence in Brisbane this week to
offer spin advice.

"And I guess if you're Virat Kohli, you'll actually be hoping that MS Dhoni does really
well and is able to hold on to his place. Because you would like that kind of
experience performing well in the team. Just that knowledge would be priceless for
Virat Kohli to have."
Although he found a clear distinction in the personalities of Dhoni and Virat Kohli,
who appears set to take over as captain in ODIs and T20Is, Prasad said the urge to
win for India was the same for both cricketers. "Dhoni never gave away anything in
terms of body language while Kohli has always been aggressive," Prasad said.
"What I have loved about Dhoni is that he will never give away anything as to what
is going on in his mind. That's his personality. He can keep things submerged in him.
"But deep down, both Dhoni and Kohli's urge to win matches for India is equal.
There is no letdown in intensity."

"What else was there for him to achieve? Most number of Test wins for India,
number 1 ranking in Test cricket, T20 World Cup, Champions Trophy, the World Cup,
most number of wins as one-day captain. I'm not great at stats but he must be at
the top of every statistical list on what an Indian captain has achieved," Dravid said.

"History will remember him as India's most successful captain. And someone who
really, in his time as an Indian captain, took the team and the game forward in this
country."

Kohli himself made a 105-ball 122 to fire up India's pursuit of 351, but was for once
outscored and overshadowed in a partnership.
"I think it was outstanding, just to have another guy that was willing to believe we
can win from any situation was such a boost for me as well. If you want to give one
man credit, it is Kedar Jadhav," Kohli said after the match. "They had four quick
bowlers and he really tackled all of them really well. He put a lot of pressure on the
spinners so they couldn't come back into the game. I couldn't believe some of the
shots he played. He told me it was instinctive, but such was his talent."
When Jadhav joined Kohli in the 12th over, India were four down for 63 and had lost
Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. But Jadhav's shot-making instantly took the pressure off
Kohli - he was unruffled by the short balls and executed the pull, one of his most
productive shots, effortlessly, and countered the spinners with lofted drives. With
Kohli at the other end, there were plenty of quick singles and doubles during their
200-run alliance in just 147 balls. Kohli called it one of the best partnerships he had
been involved in.
"Striking at 150 was outstanding and all clean shots; he didn't slog the ball once,"
Kohli said in praise. "He was brilliant and that's why we back him to play at No. 6. I
think it was one of the best partnerships I've been part of. I think the best thing that
came out was to counter-attack. I don't think any of the wickets we lost was
because of good balls; we committed errors.
"Kedar and I had a gut feel. We thought if we get the score past 150-160 together
still with four down, we had a great chance. The pitch was even better to bat on in
the second innings. The ball travels very fast here. We could hit sixes to put that
pressure every now and then on the opposition. We chased 350 a couple of times
before but not from 63 for 4. This is something really special and will stay with me
for a long time."

MSK Prasad, India's chairman of selectors, said that MS Dhoni's decision to step
down as India's limited-overs captain came at the right time and showed Dhoni had
the best interests of the team in his mind.
"Had Mahi [Dhoni] taken the decision one year or even six months earlier, I would
have been a bit worried," Prasad told PTI. "But I salute him for his sense of perfect

timing. He knew that Virat [Kohli] is now a proven customer who has done
exceptionally well as a leader in Tests.
"So it is a correct decision by Dhoni. It showed that he had the best interest of
Indian cricket in his mind."

"Indian captaincy, there can be a lot happening around in Indian cricket - emotions
can go up and down," Dravid said. "For me, he was able to maintain a calm and a
balance through all of it, which was his unique ability and his unique strength. And I
think Indian cricket benefited a lot from that."
History, Dravid said, would remember Dhoni as India's most successful captain.

"I don't think it's very difficult," Dravid said. "From personal experience as well, it
takes a little bit of getting used to and adjusting - of not setting the field and not
running things - but I think you get used to it. And Dhoni spent a lot of time as a
player and not having captained before he started captaining in 2007. So I don't
think it should take him too much time to get used to it. And knowing the kind of
person he is and the personality he is, I don't see it as too much of a problem."