India and England, the two powerhouses of international cricket are ready to face each other again in the 2nd T20I of this series at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Birmingham on July 9th. Team India registered a fabulous win in the series opener game under the leadership of Rohit Sharma. India dominated in most parts of the game with the exceptional performance of the all-rounder Hardik Pandya, while England struggled to score. Pandya’s recent form will help team India to become more confident in the coming games and he will surely be an asset for India in the coming T20 World Cup.
Despite an impressive victory, Team India should focus on a couple of areas in the next game like batting in the end overs and catching, as the players dropped six catches in the last match.
With a change in the side, team India is stronger in the second game. As the powerhouses like Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, and Rishabh Pant are returning, the game will surely be more interesting.
Virat Kohli is making his T20I return after 5 months now and he is forced to show his best in this match to save his T20 career. If he fails again in the second match, he may fall out of favor for T20 World Cup. Despite his current slump, Kohli’s recent T20 form against England was impressive. In the 2021 T20I series against England, he made scores of 73* (49), 77* (46), and 80* (52) in the three matches.
While Kohli and other senior players are in frequent breaks, fringe players like Deepak Hooda have got the opportunity to excel in the game. Now, with the performances he has come up with, it will be difficult to drop Hooda in this game. So, the question is whether Kohli will be the opener with Rohit Sharma instead of Ishan Kishan or he remains in the third position to drop Hooda.
On the other side, Dinesh Karthik will probably be avoided from wicket-keeping as Rishab Pant is returning. Even though Arshdeep Singh made a good debut, he is likely to sit back as Bumrah returns to the team.
Team England is going on with the unchanged side even though there is an unhappy beginning in the series. Jos Butler’s team didn’t perform as planned and England’s bowling area was too weak which led India to score more. Chris Jordan is the only hope for England now in bowling. It is only because of Jordan that the score was restricted in the last overs.
England is only matching India in the batting level now. But the unexpected golden duck of Butler in the last game will surely make the team under pressure. Jason Roy, Liam Livingstone, and many easily surrendered with the quality Indian bowling. So, England should cross-check the efficiency of the team before the game.
The team who wins the toss may prefer to bat first on the spin-friendly pitch. England had a 100% win record at Birmingham, with South Africa(2012), India(2014), and Australia(2018) since 2012. This is the same ground where India lost to England in the 5Th Test. So, they hold hope in the 2nd T20I. Unlike the 1st game, the 2nd T20 starts at 7 pm. Let’s see whether England bounces back or not to take the challenge to India.
India vs England Squad
India: Rohit Sharma (C), Rahul Tripathi, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Virat Kohli, Axar Patel, Deepak Hooda, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Venkatesh Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravi Bishnoi, Umran Malik, Yuzvendra Chahal.
England: Jos Butler (C), Dawid Malan, Harry Brook, Jason Roy, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Phil Salt, Chris Jordan, David Willey, Matt Parkinson, Reece Topley, Richard Gleeson, Tymal Mills.
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