England vs India 2018: 5 reasons why England lost the first T20I
KL Rahul's century and Kuldeep Yadav's career-best T20I figures helped India claim a convincing eight-wicket win over England in the first T20I at Manchester. Courtesy of that win, India take a 1-0 lead in the T20I series and make in three T20I wins in a row on their tour of United Kingdom so far.
After winning the toss, India elected to field first and at the start, it looked as though they might live to regret that decision as Jason Roy and Jos Buttler hammered the Indian bowlers in the first few overs. Roy fell inside the powerplay but Buttler carried on and scored his third consecutive fifty as an opener in T20Is.
But just when it looked as though England were going to post a massive total, Kuldeep Yadav came on and ran through the middle-order and ensured that the hosts set a below-par total. Kuldeep finished with figures of 5/24 as England could post only 159/8 in their 20 overs.
In response, India lost Shikhar Dhawan early but KL Rahul took it upon himself to ensure that India got over the line. He scored his second T20I hundred and with a little bit of help from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli towards the end helped India get over the line with eight wickets and 10 balls to spare.
Here are 5 reasons why England lost the first T20I:
#1 Failure to capitalize on a blistering start
When England decided to try out Jason Roy and Jos Buttler at the top of the innings, there was only one reason for that. Make the utmost of the field restrictions by having not one but two incredibly destructive batsmen who can clear the boundary at will.
In the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, England knew that if they get at India early, they could expose the lack of two genuine death bowlers towards the end of the innings. And that is exactly what Roy and Buttler did at the start. After four overs, England were already closing in on bringing up their fifty. From there, considering their batting depth and the form that they were in, 200 would have been the minimum expectation.
Instead, it all went downhill from there. The last two overs of the powerplay yielded just nine runs and they also lost a wicket as well. From 44-0 after 4 overs, they finished with 159/8 from their 20 overs.