India vs England 3rd T20I preview: Upbeat Men in Blue eye clean sweep – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Having gained an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, Team India will hope to complete a 3-0 sweep when they take on England in the third and final T20I in Nottingham on Sunday.

The Men in Blue bounced back from their disappointing loss in the rescheduled fifth Test at Edgbaston with the Rohit Sharma-led outfit pulling off a clinical 50-run win in the series opener at Southampton on Thursday.

India made multiple changes to their combination in the second game at Edgbaston after several seniors including former captain Virat Kohli and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah joined the white-ball squad after the Test.

This time it was all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja who came to the team’s rescue with an unbeaten 46 that rescued the Men in Blue from a shaky 89/5 in the middle overs, helping them set a competitive 171-run target. The bowling unit, meanwhile, was just as clinical as they were in the opening game, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar once again making the English batters dance to his tunes with the exaggerated movement as the hosts were bundled out for a paltry 121.

With the series already in their bag, one wonders what Team India’s approach for what is effectively a dead rubber will be like — whether they retain the winning combination from the second game and go for the kill or offer another round of opportunities to some of the younger members of the squad keeping the bigger picture in mind.

Give Arshdeep, Hooda another game?

Arshdeep for instance, has made just one appearance in the coveted blue jersey so far, having made his debut in the opening game at Southampton where he was impressive in his haul of 2/18 from three-and-a-half overs. He then had to vacate his spot for the returning Bumrah.

Bhuvneshwar has so far performed admirably in India’s white-ball fixtures post-IPL and is very much part of the team’s plans going into the World Cup. Harshal Patel too has made quite a few appearances (16) in the shortest format since making his international debut in the home series against New Zealand last year.

Coach Rahul Dravid and the rest of the leadership group could perhaps look at resting either of them and bringing Arshdeep’s left-arm pace into the equation one more time in the series.

Similarly, all-rounder Deepak Hooda will have felt hard done by after having to sacrifice his position for Kohli after a scintillating run in the Ireland T20Is and dishing out a quickfire 17-ball 33 in the opening T20I. Accommodating him in the XI, though will be trickier than bringing Arshdeep over — Rohit could perhaps get him to open once more and push Pant down the order, or have him in the middle-order at the expense of say Suryakumar Yadav.

Problems aplenty for Buttler and Co

Jos Buttler’s reign as England’s white-ball captain, meanwhile, is off to a forgettable start with the hosts having already surrendered the three-match series in his first major assignment since taking over the leadership from the recently-retired Eoin Morgan.

And this is despite some promising performances from all-rounder Chris Jordan (2/23 and 4/27) as well as left-arm seamer Richard Gleeson, who shone on debut on Saturday with a haul of 4-1-15-3, removing the Indian top three in a performance that will certainly have made him one to watch out for in the months to come.

England’s Richard Gleeson, celebrates after dismissing India’s Virat Kholi during the second T20 international cricket match between England and India at Edgbaston in Birmingham, England, Saturday, July 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)

Where the hosts have been primarily lacking is in their scoring rate in the powerplay as well as losing wickets upfront in that particular stage, and the English top-order has had a hard time adjusting to the sideways movement created by Bhuvneshwar. In the last two matches, the hosts’s score at the end of the powerplay read 32/3 and 36/3 — going at six-an-over or less on both occasions, which could be considered criminal in the slam-bang format.

Buttler, who has been dismissed by Bhuvneshwar for 0 and 4 in the two games so far, will hope to lead from the front and rediscover the red-hot form that made him the top run-scorer in the recent IPL as well as in Netherlands soon after.

And unlike the series opener, where the English attack fought back admirably in the slog overs to keep India below the 200-mark when they appeared destined for a much higher score at one stage, they failed to capitalise on the strong start provided by Gleeson in the second game as Jadeja’s counterattack in the middle and death overs allowed the Indians to get away and post a competitive total on the board.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wk), 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 (c, wk), Moeen Ali, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Richard Gleeson, Chris Jordon, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Tymal Mills, Matthew Parkinson, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Reece Topley, David Willey.

Venue: Trent Bridge Cricket Ground, Nottingham.

Time: 7 pm IST (2.30 pm local time).

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