While the three-match T20I series between the hosts England and the visitors India is currently level by the 1-1 margin after the second game, the third and final game of the series will be played on Sunday (July 8) at Bristol County Ground (Bristol).
India clinched a thrashing 8-wicket victory in the first T20I at Manchester while the hosts England secured a close 5-wicket victory in the last over of the second T20I at Cardiff. So now, both teams are ready to take the last step and seal the series by winning the Bristol game.
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After a disappointing performance in the first game, English bowlers made a brilliant comeback in the second T20I. Especially, David Willey and Liam Plunket bowled exceptionally well in the second game as they had the bowling figures of 1/18 and 1/17 respectively after completing their four-over quotas.
Apart from Jake Ball’s 22-run conceding in the last over, England bowlers were mostly under control during the Cardiff game. However, their batsmen still struggled against the Indian bowlers. While their top-order batting didn’t work, they had to fight very hard to secure an important victory. Only, Alex Hales’ mature and responsible batting saved the team.
So, the English attacking batting line-up needs to produce the better performance to achieve the consistent success against India. On the other hand, the inconsistent English bowlers, who get brilliant success in the last game, will need to be ready to give the tougher test.
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In the addition, Ben Stokes’ return will provide the more open option for England. However, the English skipper Eoin Morgan isn’t sure about his inclusion in the playing XI for the final T20I.
On the other hand, after failing to make the 150+ total on the board in the second game due to the massive top-order failure, the bowlers performed quite better and almost succeeded to defend their low total. India’s batting needs to be more improvement as the batsmen need to perform consistently against the good bowlers.
While the Indian bowling team is currently in the good form, Indian batting team needs to be stronger to bring the positive results continuously against the strong team.
Full-member squad for the three-match T20I series
England squad: Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, David Willey, Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes.
India squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Hardik Pandya, Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav.
