England’s bid to win a first Champions Trophy begins in earnest this week with a one-day international series against tournament favourites India. Facing the world’s top-ranked team away is a tough ask in itself let alone for one struggling overseas: since becoming world champions in this format in 2019, England have lost 19 of 32 matches, nine in Asia. Here, Mail Sport assesses five key questions they must ponder ahead of Thursday’s opening match of three in Nagpur:.

One school of thought in limited-overs cricket is to maximise the number of deliveries faced by your most destructive player, but Buttler isn’t keen on returning to the opening role he filled during a period in which England won their second Twenty20 World Cup two winters ago. Indeed, he has never gone in first during a career of 181 50-over internationals. Yet, having given up the wicketkeeping gloves to concentrate on captaincy, this appears an ideal time for a promotion from No 6, the position in which he featured in his most recent ODI series in the Caribbean 14 months ago.

No one who has scored more than Buttler’s 5022 career runs can match his strike rate of 117.11 and slotting him in between the Yorkshiremen Joe Root and Harry Brook at four, or below them at five, will ensure his match-reading and quick scoring abilities are not wasted. Buttler has England's third-best ODI strike rate ever but has never opened for his country. Salt’s lack of runs will be of concern, particularly with uncertainty lingering over Jamie Smith’s fitness.

England’s medical team ruled Surrey’s Smith out of selection for a minimum seven days when he experienced calf discomfort in Rajkot and although he has been working hard in the gym to meet that date, Salt would have to be retained if they were to err on the side of caution. Although he fought his way to 23 in the fourth T20 in Pune, it merely took his overall tally to 36 runs in six innings spanning back to a new year stint at the ILT20. Salt has plenty of credit in the bank, of course, after averaging 51 versus West Indies last autumn, and has been identified as a perfect opening foil to Ben Duckett at the top of the order, but ideally England will also want to accommodate Liam Livingstone and Jacob Bethell, their best two fielders as well as back-up spin options, in their XIs.

England will need Phil Salt to rediscover his form in light of Jamie Smith's fitness issues. England will be confronted by arguably the best top six of all time: India captain Rohit Sharma and his predecessor Virat Kohli share 81 ODI hundreds between them, vice-captain Shubman Gill, with a mark of 58.2 has the highest average of any player from a major nation and Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant are renowned for their destruction regardless of the colour of the ball or length of the match.

Combatting them in home conditions will not be easy, but England’s best chance of doing so successfully will be to emulate the attacking approach coach Brendon McCullum pioneered during the 2015 World Cup when his hunt for early wickets featured a clutch of close catchers. Taking wickets is the way to disrupt a team like India who like to preserve them for end-of-innings assaults and England will continue to place their faith in pace bowlers Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Brydon Carse and Jamie Overton to do so.

The Three Lions will have to overcome India's historically strong opening six batters. Ideally, England will want to use this trio of fixtures to not only gain confidence by overturning a recent run that has plunged them to seventh in the rankings, but do so while working out their best combinations for the Champions Trophy opener against Ashes rivals Australia in Lahore on February 22. McCullum’s plan was to provide opportunities for all by rotating the 16 players here, but as a major tournament looms nearer priorities change. And McCullum also said there would be no cotton wool treatment for his layers despite it being an Ashes year. An obvious area for improvement is wicket-taking in the power play - in the last 11 ODIs, they have managed just 14 compared to 25 for their opponents. However, there is a glaring lack of variety in the bowling attack.

Traditionally, left-arm seamers have been successful in white-ball affairs in India, but having travelled here with three in their ranks for the 2023 World Cup, there are none this time as Sam Curran and Reece Topley were overlooked. Brendon McCullum must find his side's best XI before their Champions Trophy opener against Australia later this month. The five-match Twenty20 series highlighted the distinct contrast in styles between the two teams; India overloading their attack with spin and sending down 13 and 14 overs of it at a time, testing England’s greatest weakness.