The Men in Blue once again managed to turn around things quickly after a defeat in the first match of the series. Virat Kohli and Co. showed great intent from the word go and once again the chase master paced his innings to perfection to guide the hosts to a comfortable 7 wickets victory.
With the series 5-match series now leveled, 1-1. We have the third encounter between the sides scheduled to take place at the Narendra Modi Stadium, this Tuesday. Though as per the latest reports the remaining matches will be played behind doors owing to the increasing Covid cases within the country.
The Indians who managed to win the toss made the right call to bowl first and bowlers- mainly- Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur did a brilliant job at the death to contain the visitors restricting them to just 45 runs in the last 6 overs. Team India in reply were a bit shaky at the start as they once again lost their opener- KL Rahul for a duck. But the 22-year old debutant Ishan Kishan made sure he held the innings together along with the skipper.
The pair stitched together 94 runs in the first 10 overs before the youngster was dismissed leg before to Adil Rashid. But proceedings looked well in favor of India with the skipper getting to his prime form and got India over the line but smashing the ball over the deep square leg and in doing so became the first player in the history of T20I to score 3000 runs.
Virat Kohli once again played a masterstroke innings to guide India home. Can he help India take the lead? Or will the Englishmen produce a fightback? Once the clash of the top two nations in the world promises to be an entertaining one.
Match Toss Time: 18:30 Local (13:00 GMT)
Match Start Time: 19:00 Local (13:30 GMT)
Match Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
Head to Head
Matches Played: 16, India: 8, England: 8
Weather Report
Ideal conditions for cricket as clear skies are forecasted for the day and no chance of rain whatsoever is expected. The temperature at the peak is likely to hover around 31-27 degrees Celsius and the humidity at the peak is anticipated to reach the 18-19 percent range.
Pitch
From what we saw in the last two games, the strip has been a very competitive one, and once again we could be seeing an even contest between the bat and ball. Though given that the dew has been playing a major role and once again is expected to be vital in this encounter, the team winning the toss should be looking to bowl first. Once again we could be looking at an aggregate of around the 320-330 mark.
Team News
The hosts made some bold changes in the line-up and it did pay off as the debutant Ishan Kishan set the stadium ablaze with his fearless hitting. The plan to include an extra batsman by having the all-rounder Hardik Pandya bowl his entire quota too seems to be working in India’s favor. The only concern for India would be the form of their opener KL Rahul and given that Kohli had reported that Rohit Sharma could be playing the last three matches, it does look likely for the Hitman to replace KL Rahul at the top.
England on the other hand after a dominating show in the first match were completely outplayed in the second clash. Tom Curran who was brought in as a replacement for Mark Wood could not deliver the goods. There has been no official update on the condition of Mark Wood yet and if he is still in the recovery process. The skipper and management may be looking to replace Tom Curran with the 27-year old all-rounder- Reece Topley.
Probable Playing Xl
India (IND): KL Rahul/Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal
England (ENG): Jason Roy, Jos Buttler (wk), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan (c), Ben Stokes, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer, Tom Curran/Reece Topley, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid
IND vs ENG Fantasy Team
Rishabh Pant, Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan, Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes, Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jodra Archer, Adil Rashid
Captain Picks: Ishan Kishan (IND), Dawid Malan (ENG)
Vice-captain Picks: Jason Roy (ENG), Virat Kohli (IND)
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