The big picture: Can ‘brutal’ India save TV series?
Losing one bilateral T20I series can be considered a misfortune; losing both looks like carelessness. India head to Bristol facing the prospect of back-to-back series defeats for the first time since 2018-19 in this format and need to bounce back immediately from a performance in Nottingham that captain Shreyas Iyer described as “horrible”.
Iyer slammed his side’s efforts at Trent Bridge, criticizing their “horrible” performance with bat and ball and their performance on the field leaving much to be desired. He is still waiting for his first win since taking over from Suryakumar Yadav and has now lost ten of his last 11 completed matches as captain since the midway point of the IPL with the Punjab Kings.
Gautam Gambhir, their head coach, insisted that India did not become a bad team overnight and that their Nottingham squad has seven players who won the T20 World Cup final against New Zealand four months ago. But they need to recover quickly from a humiliating night that exposed a potential vulnerability to dynamic bowling in overseas conditions.
Josh Tong and Jofra Archer shared seven wickets in the third T20I.•Getty Images
The contrast with their opposition is stark. Since Harry Brook took over from Jos Buttler last summer, England have quietly transformed themselves into a world-class T20 team and have won 18 of their last 21 completed matches. They have never beaten India in a men’s T20I series (of at least two matches) before, but can close it out with one more game.
This would be a wonderful achievement for Brook and Brendon McCallum. The pair have become a formidable partnership in the format and a decisive series win against the world champions – albeit in transition – will raise questions about whether they can make the same impact on England’s flagging Test team.
Form Guide
India LLLLLLV (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
England WWLWW
Spotlight: Dawson and Dube
Liam Dawson has spent most of his career as an England reserve but has been heavily supported by Brook and has been one of five regulars since June last year. But his impact on India’s glut of left-handers was limited: he was given one expensive over in the World Cup semi-final in March and bowled only six overs in the three matches of the series. He will be 38 by the time the next T20 World Cup arrives at the end of 2028, and England have another left-arm spin option in James Coles waiting in the wings.
Shivam Dube suffers two failures with the bat•BCCI
Shivam Dube scored 42 not out from 21 balls in the first series in Durham but lost twice in a row. He had a day off from the field at Trent Bridge and was kept in eighth place – bizarrely driven below Harshit Rana – in India’s run chase before falling in familiar fashion, accelerated by Josh Tong’s hard knocks. He could use a good result at Bristol to remind everyone just how destructive he can be on his day.
Team News: Counter Stories
England, who released James Coles (Sussex) and Rehan Ahmed (Leicestershire) to play in the Blast on Wednesday night, are unlikely to change the winning combination.
England 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Harry Brooke (capt), 4 Jacob Bethell, 5 Tom Banton, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Josh Tang
How will India react to such a heavy defeat? They have five players in the reserves – Sanju Samson, Washington Sundar, Sooryansh Shedge, Ravi Bishnoi and Prasidh Krishna – and may consider bringing in an extra right-arm batter to break up the left-armers. Washington can also play the role of a “security blanket” in the event of another major misfire.
India (possible) 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Vaibhav Suryavanshi, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Shivam Dube/Suryansh Shedge, 7 Axar Patel/Washington Sundar, 8 Harshit Rana, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Prince Yadav, 11 Varun Chakravarthy
Field and conditions: generally highly rated.
India were unbeaten in their previous four completed matches in Bristol, but no one survived from the team that chased down 199 on their last visit in 2018, coincidentally also during the World Cup. Bristol have an unusual size – short straight boundaries but some big pockets – and tend to be very high-scoring for T20Is, although the first innings average across five Blast games this year is just 156. Expect another warm evening as the UK heat wave continues.
Statistics and trivia
- Adil Rashid (166) overtook Ish Sodhi (165) to become the second-highest wicket-taker in the men’s T20I on Tuesday night, although he is slightly behind Rashid Khan (193).
- Five England players have been selected for all 24 T20I teams they have played in since June last year: Tom Banton, Jacob Bethell, Buttler, Dawson and Rashid; Brook was relaxing before a short tour of Ireland last September.
- Vaibhav Suryavanshi hit seven runs in his first two T20I innings: three singles and four sixes.
Quotes
“I hope so… Jof is terrible enough to admit to – I know that, I’ve been doing this since I was 11 – so it’s nice to see someone else getting treatment for a change.”
Phil Salt expects Jofra Archer to continue to work hard in Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
“Sometimes when you play a high-risk, high-reward game, things like this can happen: You can get knocked out of the game by the score. This is what made us successful and we will try to continue to play in the same spirit.”
Gautam Gambhir insists Indian batters will not be reconsidering their approach after a difficult night in Nottingham.
Matt Roller is a senior reporter at Cricinfo. @mroller98