Bristol: Off-spin bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar and pacer Prasidh Krishna returned to India’s playing eleven as captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first in their must-win fourth T20I against England here at the County Ground in Bristol on Thursday.
India are 2-0 behind in the five-game series and need a win to keep themselves alive. After the toss, Iyer said Washington and Prasidh would come in for Harshit Rana and Varun Chakaravarthy being ruled out due to hamstring injuries. The match also marks left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Axar Patel’s 100th T20I appearance.
“It is a must-win game, and we are going to play like that. We have had fearlessness, but have not been able to execute the plans as much as possible. Today is a fresh day, a fresh start, and the boys are in high spirits.
“We want to be positive, but you have to read the environment and see how the game is going – adapt to the wicket and the way the wind is blowing. If we sort these, we will definitely get the results,” he said.
England skipper Harry Brook said leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed replaces left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Liam Dawson in the playing eleven. “We would have batted. There’s a nice, even spread of grass.
“We played awesome in the last game, adapted to conditions, and communicated really well. It was a very good team performance. It would be lovely to win the series, and it is more of the same from the other night. Adapt, communicate, and back ourselves. Everyone can contribute on our side.”
Playing XIs:
India: Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, and Prasidh Krishna
England: Philip Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Harry Brook (captain), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, and Josh Tongue
(IANS)
