Rohit SharmaSeen inspiring leadership and an aggressive brand new approach India After defeating England by 49 runs in the second T20 International, they took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series on Saturday. Batting first, India once again showed aggressive intent at 170 for eight, riding on new ‘batting all-rounder’ Ravindra Jadeja (46 not out from 29 balls) after a sudden collapse during the middle leg. Track full of speed and bounce.
With the ball, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s (3/15) new found momentum in the powerplay overs was brilliantly complemented by the skillful pairing of Jasprit Bumrah (2/10) and Yuzvendra Chahal (2/10), as England’s innings was only Was reduced to 121 runs. 17 overs. If India’s batting has been great in both the matches, then the bowling in the powerplays has been absolutely brilliant.
Ever since he got the full-time captaincy, the Indian team is yet to lose a match under his leadership. There have been three clean sweeps – New Zealand (3-0), West Indies (3-0), Sri Lanka (3-0) and a fourth one against England seems imminent. With three months left for the World T20, the playing XI on Saturday gave a glimpse of what the batting order could be like and what its visions could be.
The rise of Rishabh Pant (26 off 15 balls) as the opener along with skipper Rohit (31 off 20 balls) is a welcome move where the team will not go wrong in at least being careful in the powerplay overs. Between the two, he hit seven fours and three sixes in the first six overs, an approach that was missing during the last T20 World Cup.
The strategy is not to stop playing the shot even when the wicket falls at one end and Virat Kohli (1 run in three balls) sensed the peer pressure and the skier showed his frustration at the wrong time. But the most impressive aspect came out at 89 for five as India still managed to reach 170, courtesy Jadeja, who hasn’t had a great time in T20 cricket, had a rough time at CSK during the IPL, where They lost form and broken relationships.
With strong signs of leaving CSK the next year, Jadeja was playing with a free mind and it was clear that even though wickets fell at the other end, his strokeplay did not detract as the scoreboard had a competitive feel. This.
A good Indian white-ball team has always had Bhuvneshwar as a key component in the set-up. In the first game, it was a banana inswinger that cast rival skipper Jos Buttler and on Saturday, a classical outswinger saw Jason Roy in the slip cordon for the first time.
The clever Bhuvneshwar then asked Pant to come over the stumps to prevent Buttler from passing the charge and the result was a lazy under-edge in the keeper’s glove. Liam Livingstone (15) was fooled with a helmet-cam by Bumrah’s slow off-cutter, which took ages to back down and close the bails.
Harry Brooke had some boundaries but when Chahal bowled one, he hit a boundary but could not execute it properly. Moeen Ali (35) hit a few shots but England lost wickets at regular intervals as Rohit made excellent use of his bowlers.
With three wickets falling, he dismissed Chahal and when Moeen was trying to snatch the game, he found Hardik Pandya, who gave him a breakthrough. The team’s weakest bowling link Harshal Patel (1/34) was brought in towards the end when they were well prepared to win the game.