England vs India 2018, second T20I: Hits and Misses
India started their 80-day tour of the United Kingdom with a two-match T20I series against Ireland at the Village, Dublin.
They produced two convincing, dominating performances to crush Ireland and enter into the T20I series against England full on confidence.
Their batsmen looked in good touch and even their bowlers especially the spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal were too hot to handle.
England, on the other hand, came into this series against India after pummelling Australia 5-0 in a completely lopsided ODI series and followed that up with a convincing win in the one-off T20I. They have a strong and well-balanced unit who could challenge an in-form India.
The first T20I at Old Trafford, Manchester gave us an insight into England’s weakness against wrist spin.
The batsmen weren’t able to read the leg spinners, especially Kuldeep Yadav who broke the back of the England batsmen with career-best figures of 5/24.
Post that KL Rahul continued on from his performances in IPL 2018 and the T20 series against Ireland, and produced a truly stunning display of batting to bat England out of the game.
The same spinners- Adil Rashid and Moen Ali who controlled the innings and dominated the Australians found it hard to create impact against the Indian batsmen especially the inform KL Rahul.
India would want to continue on from their convincing win in the first T20I and seal the series at Cardiff and England would need to sort out their game- especially how they tackle Kuldeep Yadav to get back into the T20 series.
In a do or die encounter at the Sophia Gardens, Cardiff Eoin Morgan opted to bowl on a pitch which had something extra for the fast bowlers. Keeping the pitch conditions and India’s strength against spin, England brought in the debutant Jake Ball instead of Moen Ali. India, on the other hand, went into this clash unchanged after their convincing win in the first T20I.
In what proved to be a closely fought contest, Alex Hales kept his nerve and ensured England romped home to a win which keeps them alive in the series. England made it 1-1 in the T20I series after India were restricted to a below par total of 148 runs.
Here’s looking at the Hits and Misses from the second Vitality IT20 between England and India:
#1 Miss: The failure of India’s openers- Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan
A lot was expected from the openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan especially considering they failed to impress in the first T20I at Old Trafford, Machester. Kuldeep’s brilliance made things really easy for India. And then Rahul was at his majestic best on route to a T20 century to kick start the tour.
Rohit and Dhawan have tasted immense success in England in the limited overs formats of the game.
They were the batting mainstays who were predicted to take India to success along with the others like Kohli and Rahul. Returns of just five and 10 runs respectively at a strike rate less than 100 is definitely not a good sign.
And in both the games, they looked out of sorts. Rohit, in particular, looked shaky, missed out on many scoring opportunities.
Both openers got out rather carelessly which was propelled by the solid English bowling which could have led to the nature of dismissals.
Kohli and the Indian team management would certainly hope both their strike batsmen get into good form and soon. Rohit did start off with a flamboyant 97 against Ireland so he probably just needs a couple of balls to hit the middle of his bat to get back into rhythm again.