Virat Kohli will face the sternest test of his captaincy yet when the Indian team begins their full tour of England with a T20I series against the hosts. The first of the three-match series will be played at the Old Trafford in Manchester on Tuesday, July 3.
Historically, numbers point towards the hosts having an edge over India; England have a 6-5 win-loss record in T20Is against India and have never lost to India at home.
Currently, the Indian team is ranked second in the ICC T20I rankings, and a good series against England could see them climb to the top of the chart.
Kohli and company are riding a high, having emerged victors in each of the team’s last five T20 assignments. Most recently, the Indian team annihilated Ireland in a two-match T20I series; after winning the first match by 76 runs, the Indian team annihilated the hosts in the second meeting, registering their biggest win – winning by 143 runs.
While the results show India’s dominance in recent times, one needs to read those results together with the opposition for a reality check. In several of India’s recent assignments, they were expected to roll over their opponents – and so they did.
However, this England team presents a challenge, for they are currently playing a hitherto unseen aggressive brand of cricket and will be high on confidence themselves after inflicting on Australia a 6-0 whitewash in limited overs cricket, not too long ago.
England are a well-balanced side now; they have depth in their batting and have batsmen who are go-getters. Their bowling attack might not give too many Indian batsmen the scares, but England have variety in their bowling line-up.
England will most likely field the same side they fielded in the one-off T20I against Australia recently. The one batsman the Indian bowlers should possibly fear is Jos Buttler, who was sensational in the second half of the Indian Premier League season and has carried that form into international cricket.
While England have established themselves as an aggressive side, the one player who appears to be a complete misfit in the line-up is their Test captain Joe Root; one is forced to ponder if he merits a place in this England T20 side. The question has been asked on several occasions in recent times, and the England management seems to think there is a role for classic batsmen like him.
Where the Indian team is concerned, the on-tour selection committee has some difficult decisions to make. They need to choose two from among three in-form specialist openers, have to pick one of two performing wicket-keepers, and have to find a fast bowler to replace the injured Jasprit Bumrah. It is likely that the Indian team will follow what the England management has done in recent times; they will field all three opening batsmen in the XI, and either Rohit Sharma or KL Rahul will be forced to bat at number four. The solution to the wicket-keeping place should be straightforward: MS Dhoni, having sat out the second T20I against Ireland, should return to the XI and don the gloves.
The Likely XI
England: Jos Buttler, Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Chris Jordan.
India: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav.
The spinner duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav has wreaked havoc around the world and has been major contributors to the Indian team’s recent success. They will be presented a fresh set of challenges in this tour of England; having bamboozled many an opponent all these days, weeks, months and years with the Kookaburra ball, they will now not only have to perform in alien English conditions, but also have to quickly learn how to make things happen with the Dukes ball.
The Indian team have won their last six T20Is. Team India’s longest winning streak currently stands at seven matches. If Virat Kohli and company are able to win the next two matches on the bounce, then they would have...
- Won the series
- Set a new Team India record for the longest winning streak in T20Is
- Possibly done enough to climb to the top of the ICC T20I Rankings
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