England vs India, 2018: 5 reasons why India lost the 3rd ODI and the series

The Indian cricket team crumbled to a huge loss in the final ODI against England at Headingley, Leeds.

Chasing 257 for victory, England won the match comfortably by eight wickets. Eoin Morgan and Joe Root put on an unbeaten 186 run partnership to take give the home side the victory.

While Morgan remained unbeaten on 88, Root remained unbeaten on 100. Earlier in the innings, Jonny Bairstow and James Vince got England off to a flier as they took on the Indian pacers with aplomb. Shardul Thakur got Bairstow dismissed after which Vince was dismissed run-out.

However, India failed to get back into the game as Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal failed to take advantage of the wicket.

Earlier in the first innings, India managed to score 256 runs after a slow start. Virat Kohli was the star of the innings as he scored 71 in 72 deliveries.

With this win, England won the ODI series 2-1. Their next assignment will be against India in a five-match Test series which begins on August 1.

Let's take a look at 5 reasons why India lost the final ODI and the series

#5 Extremely slow start by India

As India were put into bat first, they got off to an extremely slow start as Rohit Sharma failed to get going. In the end, he was dismissed after scoring just 2 runs in 16 deliveries. After scoring two centuries in the limited-overs series, Rohit was looking completely off colour and could hardly get bat onto ball.

Shikhar Dhawan too failed to get going in the first 10 overs as he could not pick the English pacers with ease.

Both David Willey and Mark Wood bowled extremely well, swinging the ball and bowling tight lines, thus not allowing the two openers to play their natural game.

Once he did get going, it was a little too late. His dismissal was quite unfortunate as well as he was involved in a small mix-up with Virat Kohli, thus leading to a run-out.

#2 Lower Middle order failure

Once Kohli and Dhawan got India back into the game, it looked like India were back on track and were going to score 300 or so.

Even though they got dismissed in the middle overs, the Indian middle order, namely Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, and Hardik Pandya should have taken it upon themselves to get them to a big score.

However, Raina completely failed as he was dismissed to Adil Rashid. Pandya got off to a decent start scoring 21 runs in 21 deliveries but then fell to Mark Wood. Dhoni was looking quite comfortable at 42 but he too was dismissed at the wrong moment.

If either of them stayed for a longer time, India could have scored 20-30 runs more.

#3 England's fielding a class apart from India

The Indian cricket team are known for their fitness and athleticism on the field. However, they were extremely poor on the field today and leaked a lot of runs.

A large number of boundaries should have been stopped by the fielder inside the circle. Kohli was visibly disappointed with the fielders.

On the other hand, the English fielders were a class apart as they dived around all over the place and were successful in preventing a lot of boundaries. They would have easily stopped the Indian side from getting 25-30 runs. This could have proved to be a big difference in the end.

#4 Indian spin duo fails

When Adil Rashid got three wickets in the first innings, everyone expected the spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal to clean up the English batting line-up and help India win the series.

However, they failed to get any wickets in the 20 overs they bowled together. Despite Chahal bowling quite well throughout the innings, he was not awarded with a wicket. When he did end up getting one, it ended up being a no-ball.

On the other hand, Kuldeep Yadav had an off-day and was taken apart by the English batsmen. This was probably his worst performance in this series so far.

#5 Root and Morgan show their class

After both Bairstow and Vince were back in the pavilion, India thought they might have been back in the game, especially with Chahal and Kuldeep yet to bowl their quota of overs.

However, Joe Root, who scored a century in the previous match, continued from where he left off and scored another century, getting his century on the last ball of the match.

He was joined by captain Eoin Morgan, who remained unbeaten on 88.

The two batsmen looked extremely confident and took on the Indian bowlers, especially the wrist spinners, with ease.