3rd T-20I: India looks to seal series against England in Bengaluru

Bumrah
Captain Kohli eyes another triumph, Eng determined. File Pic

Internet Desk: After a nail biting win at Nagpur in the second T-20, Virat Kohli’s team India eye another series win against England, when they face the visitors in the final T-20 in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

India had won both Test and ODI series by 4-0 and 2-1 respectively against England. Now Kohli would want to rewrite that result in the shortest format of the game and want to end the series on a high note.

Earlier India was trailing the series by 0-1 after they lost in Nagpur, but they fought back in style at Nagpur with some brilliant death bowling by veteran Ashish Nehra and young Jasprit Bumrah and leveled the series 1-1.

The defeat in the last game from an impregnable winning position has left England skipper Eoin Morgan “extremely frustrated”, and he would desperately want his team to leave the Indian shore with something to cheer about.

Bumrah was a performance worthy of winning any game, having conceded a measly five runs in overs 18 and 20 when batsmen normally go hammer and tongs, umpire Chettithody Shamshuddin’s wrong decision against Joe Root at a crucial juncture stood out like a sore thumb, prompting the England management to take up the case with the ICC.

Replays showed that not only was the ball heading down the leg side, but Root had got a thick edge on it as it thudded into his thigh pad.

However, while England may be raring to make amends after throwing it away, it will be a humongous task to get the better of an opponent brimming with confidence. They may have displayed fighting abilities and also won the opening game, but the hosts will still have their nose ahead at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Kohli, unbeaten as captain series-wise at home in all formats of the game, will be too happy to add another silverware to his cabinet at a venue where India have fond memories — they knocked out Bangladesh from the World T20 by one run last year.

That March win against Bangladesh, as well as the one last Sunday, will be fresh in their minds, and they will take positives out of those victories. In both matches, one common factor has been Bumrah’s successful final overs.

There remains, though, areas India would like to improve further.

At Nagpur, it was the clever bowling by Chris Jordan, Ben Stokes and Tymal Mills, backed up by England’s excellent fielding, which stifled India.

Kohli and coach Anil Kumble would sit down and find an answer to the pace trio who have, time and again, outfoxed the batsmen with well-disguised slower deliveries and dried up boundaries.

India’s batting stalwarts — Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina — would be eager to get going and put up a formidable score against an English side that bats deep.

KL Rahul’s confidence will be high as he stood out with a breezy 71 on a difficult surface, where his teammates struggled.

Rahul propped up the Indian innings with some crisp hitting, which included six boundaries and a couple of sixes.

Kohli has the option of making a few changes, though it would be a gamble to blood in an exciting young talent like Rishab Pant, who hogged the limelight with his aggressive batting in the 50-over warm-up match against England at Mumbai.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is another player, who has been warming the reserves’ bench for the last two matches and could be drafted into the XI, depending on the nature of the pitch, which the curator says is full of runs.

This will be the first international match at the Chinnaswamy stadium after the ground underwent a massive revamp.

In a first, the Karnataka State Cricket Association recently unveiled the Rs 4.5 crore-valued next-generation subsurface aeration and vacuum-powered drainage system, which quickly removes standing water — 36 times faster than drainage, virtually eliminating the need for extended game delays or cancellations due to wet outfield conditions.

The system has been used at some of the best stadiums worldwide including Wembley (UK), New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, BMO Field (Canada), Etihad Stadium (Manchester City) etc, and has over 500 installations. It has also been used for NFL, 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Coming back to cricket, Ashish Nehra with the new ball and Bumrah with the old, would like to fire again after a good outing in the previous match.

For England, Morgan has been in good form from the start of the limited overs series and his sequence of scores read 28, 102, 43 and 51.

India: Virat Kohli (captain), K L Rahul, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Parvez Rasool, Ashish Nehra, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mandeep Singh, Rishab Pant, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Amit Mishra.

England: Eoin Morgan (captain), Jason Roy, Sam Billings, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Tymal Mills, Jonathan Bairstow, Jake Ball, Liam Dawson and David Willey.