England vs India: MS Dhoni close to breaking another monumental ODI record

Nottingham: While Mahendra Singh Dhoni has many big records to his name, the former Team India skipper could achieve yet another monumental feat on Thursday by becoming the 12th batsman in ODI cricket to join the 10000-run club. The veteran cricketer just needs 33 runs more in his kitty when the Men in Blue take on England in the opener of the three-match ODI series.

If he does reach his target, the Jharkhand wicket-keeper batsman will join the illustrious company of fellow Indians such as Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly in the list. Sitting on top is the Master Blaster with 18426 runs, joined by by Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara (14234), Australia's Ricky Ponting (13704) in the top three. Not only that, Dhoni will also become only the second wicketkeeper-batsman to score 10000 runs.

On a high after an impressive Twenty20 series win, an upbeat India will eye another dominant performance against hosts England in a three-match ODI series, which can be termed as a 'dry run' ahead of the World Cup next year. With cricket's blue riband tournament scheduled to be held in UK next year, the ODI series will give Virat Kohli an ideal opportunity to get a drift about the conditions that his men are expected to encounter at exactly same time next year. While India will be buoyed by their 2-1 T20 series win, England, the top-ranked ODI team in world cricket, come into the series having crushed a below-par Australia 6-0 in their last bilateral engagement.

England have been one of the finest 50 over sides in recent times and India will have their task cut against a batting line-up comprising Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Jonny Bairstow and Eoin Morgan. Add Ben Stokes to it and England bear a formidable look. It is a reputation built on fearless, attacking cricket that has seen England win 46 out of 69 ODIs since a disastrous 2015 World Cup. Their last bilateral series defeat came in India in January 2017, with only a freak one-off loss to Scotland in the interim. The series will also enable Indian team management to mix and match the various combinations, keeping World Cup in mind.