Birmingham: Last week, India were in Edgbaston, with a 2-1 lead from the Test series last year and aiming to convert into 3-1 to clinch the Pataudi Trophy for the first time since 2007.
But their second innings batting meltdown and England’s new, attacking approach with the bat meant the visitors lost by seven wickets and missed out on a chance to win the series.
Now, a week later, India are back at Edgbaston, this time with a chance to seal the T20I series against England on Saturday. With players like Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja set to join the T20I side from Edgbaston, expect for a plethora of changes to happen for India’s eleven in second T20I.
With India adopting a high-attacking approach with the bat, Kohli might come in at the expense of Deepak Hooda, who made a strong case for himself in that position with a century against Ireland at Malahide and hit 33 off just 17 balls in the first T20I at Southampton.
But India will be very pleased with Hardik Pandya coming back to his peak power as an all-rounder. At Southampton, Pandya slammed his maiden T20I fifty with 51 off 33 balls, laced with six fours and six as India reached 198/8, with Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav chipping in as well. What they will look to improve is the batting in last five overs, where they got 57/5 and dropped many catches, which didn’t become costly for them.
With his right-arm pace, Pandya took 4-33 his allotted four overs, troubling the batters with hard lengths, used seam-up deliveries in between to rattle England’s explosive batting order. He was ably supported by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and debutant Arshdeep Singh finding some nip while Yuzvendra Chahal was at his best too.
England, on the other hand, didn’t have an ideal start in life post Eoin Morgan. Their top-order is explosive with captain Jos Buttler opening the batting alongside Jason Roy and Dawid Malan as well as Liam Livingstone completing the top-order. But at Southampton, as the ball swung, they couldn’t do much.
With the ball, England pulled back well in the last three overs, conceding just 20 runs, with right-arm pacer Chris Jordan being pick of bowlers with 2/23, in a bowling line-up where others had an economy rate of above eight. The hosts’ don’t have much time to make a turnaround with just a day’s gap between first and second T20Is as India welcome their mainstays for a chance to win the series.
Squads
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel and Umran Malik
England: Jos Buttler (captain), Moeen Ali, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Richard Gleeson, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Tymal Mills, Matthew Parkinson, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Reece Topley and David Willey.
(IANS)
