T-20
T-20: All eyes on Birmingham
Last Thursday at Southampton, India easily defeated England by fifty runs. In the opening T-20 game in the ongoing three-game series, Hardik Pandya’s sparkling knock of fifty-one runs and sharp-turned bowling overthrew England in all game departments. So obviously, India is upbeat when it takes on England for the second day T 20 this evening at 7 pm (IST) at Birmingham.
Now it is to be watched if the England team could come up with a fresh enthusiasm after one of the worst failures at Southampton.
Virat Kohli has to show his mettle for future prospect
While for India’s former captain Virat Kohli today, once again, the eyes of his fans will be on his performance. It has become imperative for Virat now to bring back his form. Otherwise, maybe Virat’s position in international cricket appears shaky.
Hooda, who came to bat in Virat’s traditional position, was brilliant in the last match at Southampton.
However, suppose team India desired to allow Hooda to bat again in the same conventional place. In that case, Virat should open again with Rohit Sharma. Virat made a quick 20-run in the last Edgbaston test match but threw away his wicket when he lofted a flighted delivery from Ben Stokes to get caught at Mid wicket.
Kohli is quite familiar with the opening position. His last fifty runs in one day also took him into a relatively better mode.
With Kohli hoping to go for another opportunity for the incoming five T20s against the West Indies, the two games against England carry more implications as far as his future in the T20 format is concerned.
Kohli is undoubtedly struggling to regain his form. Still, with the younger batch of cricketers nowadays in dominance, naturally, he needs to work for his best.
Need of the hour: Innovation
During the last test match against England, Rohit was under the spell of COVID-but despite constraints from star batters, the team made an all-out effort for a perfect match.
The batsman depicted the expressive technique that has become vital in the shortest format. The pacers used the requirements brightly.
Freeing the conservative style of play that let them down in the World Cup, Indian batters gave clear signs of their innovations in the last match at Southampton. But whatever may be, the power game of cricket now takes its roots. So on T-20 nowadays, the goal is to go hard from ball one.
However, the team can improve its finishing aptitudes, which had apparent shortfalls on Thursday night.
England to put in the effort to comeback
Besides Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and Shreyas Iyer have joined the T20 squad of today’s match.
It appeared India was a batter short in the series-opener, though they built up with 198 for 9 in the last match. Jadeja is a suitable replacement for Axar Patel, and his inclusion also strengthens the batting unit of team India.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been mighty and impressive with the new ball, and Bumrah may join him. Arshdeep Singh made a successful start,
Hardik Pandya might love to repeat his feat of the last Southampton game.
After the defeat at Southampton, England will surely put in effort for a strong comeback in today’s game.
They pin their hope on skipper Jos Buttler, who will be keen to make amends after his first ball duck.
The power-packed batting, including Liam Livingstone and Jason Roy, failed in the first game but trusted them to come good in a must-win game.
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar
Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant (wk),
Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, 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.
The match starts at 7 pm.
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