India can seal the ODI series in Cardiff after Axar’s Birmingham rescue
India lead 1-0 and can wrap up the three-match series with a game to spare when they face England in the second ODI at Cardiff on Thursday.
Jul 15, 2026
India travel to Cardiff on Thursday holding a 1-0 lead and a real chance to settle the one-day series before it reaches Lord’s. A win at Sophia Gardens would give Shubman Gill’s side an unassailable 2-0 lead with a match still to play, and it would round off a quick turnaround after the T20Is, where England had brushed them aside 4-0.
The opener at Edgbaston was closer than the six-wicket margin suggests. India let England off the hook once with the ball, then wobbled in the chase before Washington Sundar and Axar Patel bailed them out. It was India’s first win of a UK tour that had started badly, and England’s first one-day defeat at Edgbaston in twelve years.
Axar’s all-round afternoon
Axar was the game’s dominant figure. England had slipped to 107 for 6 before Joe Root, unbeaten on 76, and Liam Dawson’s 68 dragged them to 258. Axar did most of the damage with 4 for 62, and Jasprit Bumrah, back for his first ODI since the 2023 World Cup final, marked the return by having Harry Brook caught for his 150th wicket in the format. India will feel they should have bowled England out for less than 258, and tightening up at the death is one thing to fix in Cardiff.
The chase then swung India’s way and back again. Gill top-scored with 80 before retiring hurt, and once he was off the field India lost three wickets in the space of 11 runs. With Rohit Sharma out for 11, Kohli for 5 and KL Rahul for 1, the recognised batting had little to show, so Washington and Axar took over. Their unbroken stand of 102 for the fifth wicket saw India home with 28 balls to spare, Axar finishing on 57 not out and Washington on 52 not out.
The questions India carry to Cardiff
Gill’s fitness is the first of them. He looked in control before retiring hurt, and India will want him back at the top rather than reshuffling an order that already misfired once. Kohli, playing his first international since January, fell for 5, and Rohit made only 11, so for all the star power at the top it was the lower-middle order that dug India out. Another start like that and Washington and Axar may not be able to repeat the rescue.
England have their own reasons to look forward to a fresh surface. They won the T20I leg 4-0 and were on top for most of that white-ball fortnight, so a batting group that celebrated Jos Buttler’s 200th one-day international on this tour now has to show it can build a bigger platform than 258 and defend it. Root’s form is the obvious plus, but the recovery from 107 for 6 flattered a top order that had been picked apart.
When and where
The second ODI is a day-nighter at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, starting at 1pm local time, which is 5:30pm IST on Thursday. Win it and India take the series with the Lord’s finale on Sunday still to come; lose it and the pressure swings back to a side that had looked in charge of this tour a week ago.