OdishaLIVE Bureau
After registering a convincing series win against Ireland, India continue the English summer by facing England in the first T20 match of the three-match series.
- India face an uphill task against the in-form England side in the first T20 match today.
- India come off from a convincing series win against Ireland but England pose a different challenge.
After registering a convincing series win against Ireland, India continue the English summer by facing England in the first T20 match of the three-match series. They later play them in a 3 match ODI series and a 5 match Test series. They play them at Old Trafford, Manchester at 22:00 PM IST.
“There generally is a different challenge when you play against sub continental teams” said the English skipper Eoin Morgan who does not take India lightly and sees them as a big challenge. He said “It usually exposes you to spin, reverse-swing – completely different challenges than we are normally used to. We are in the middle of our summer and have played a lot of cricket so hopefully we will deal with it.”
CONFIDENT KOHLI
Indian skipper Virat Kohli on the other hand believes in his side and expects them to have a tough task against England but wants his side to play positive cricket. In a press conference, he said “We believe in our ability as a team and we have a lot of T20 experience, we expect England to come hard at us and we certainly want to play some positive and hard cricket. It’s going to be an exciting series, for sure, and we believe we have the side to put up a great fight. I want the team to play good cricket and I want to be able to lead from the front”.
FORM GUIDE
India come to England after beating Ireland by huge margins in both of their matches which includes a 143-run victory in the 2nd match. India have won 12 of their last 14 T20 matches.
England on the other hand, have whitewashed Australia by winning the ODI series by 5-0. They also beat Australia in a one off T20 match.
TEAM NEWS
INDIA
Virat Kohli will be in a dilemma to pick his XI after India registered a brilliant batting display in Ireland. Both the openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan look in tremendous form. If we add to that the likes of KL Rahul who batted brilliantly in the 2nd T20 match, it will be interesting to see who will take up the opening spots. Virat Kohli is expected to start at his favoured No.3 position although he may go further down the order if KL Rahul plays in the no.3 position, instead.
Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have performed amazingly well with the pair taking 13 wickets between themselves in the two match T20 series in Ireland and will expect to be named in the XI. The middle order includes the likes of Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik and Manish Pandey with Dinesh Karthik and Manish Pandey most likely to miss out. However, there is one big blow to India as their star death bowling specialist JaspritBumrah sits out of the game due to an injury. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar will lead the pace attack for India with Umesh Yadav also backing the pace bowling. Krunal Pandya, brother of Hardik Pandya has also been called up to the squad.
ENGLAND
As for England, Jason Roy and Jos Butler will take up the opening spots with both firing from all ends. Jos Butler looks in the form of his life as he was awarded the man of the series against Australia in the ODI series. He also made the fastest T20 fifty for England in just 22 balls in the one off T20 match against the Aussies. Joe root will take up the No.3 position and has a lot to prove as the Englishman fights for his place in the England squad. David Malan who opens the innings has also been called up to the squad after bowling all rounder Tom Curran picked up an injury.
Skipper Eoin Morgan is expected to start at No.4. The middle order consists of the likes of Alex Hales, Johnny Bairstow and Moen Alli. Bowling all-rounders David Wiley and Liam Plunket will take up the No.8 and No.9 spots with the batting depth going deep into the order. Chris Jordan is expected to lead the pace attack while the leg spinner, Adil Rashid is a surprise package and will look to cause all kinds of trouble to the Indian batsmen.
WEATHER
Manchester is a city where the rain can pour at any time of the day but for now there is no forecast of rain and the day is expected to be warm and pleasant with the temperature to be around 25 degrees Celsius.
PITCH REPORT
The pitch at Old Trafford usually offers more bounce and pace than the other English pitches. But in contrast, the pitch for Tuesday looks dry and the ball is expected to spin as we saw in the 5th ODI between England and Australia, where English Spinner Moen Alli took 4 wickets. Chahal and Yadav will look to take advantage of this situation.
STATS AND TRIVIA
England and India have played 11 T20 matches with England winning 6 of them while India have won 5. England have won all three of the matches played in England.
Virat Kohli is 8 runs short of completing 2000 runs in T20 internationals. He will be the first Indian to achieve such a milestone.
MS Dhoni needs 3 more sixes to complete 50 sixes in T20 internationals while Suresh Raina needs 2 more sixes to complete 300 sixes in T20 internationals and will become the 2nd Indian to achieve this milestone after Rohit Sharma.
(Story: Raunaq Dash, Edit: Sriram Singh Rattan)
