New Delhi: India might have soared since Suryakumar Yadav was appointed the T20I skipper but his form with the bat has dipped, which would need course correction that could begin in the third match of their ongoing series against England in Rajkot on Tuesday.
India lead the five-match contest 2-0 and would look to wrap up the series on Tuesday itself while Suryakumar would hope to find some of the firm that helped him become the top-ranked T20I batter.
He has scored 429 runs in 17 innings at an average of 26.81 last year, the least productive of his international career so far. In the earlier two years, he had averaged nearly 35 in 2021, and 45 in 2022 and 2023.
But the 34-year-old has witnessed a dip in form since he became the T20I skipper after Rohit Sharma’s retirement following India’s T20 World Cup win last June.
He was not included in India’s squad for the Champions Trophy and has been dismissed in trying to play his favourite shots behind the wickets so far in the series.
Tilak Verma single-handedly won the second game in Chennai that papered the failure of Sanju Samson against the short ball of Jofra Archer.
Spin and pace
Since the Rajkot track is usually full of runs, another run fest can be expected but Indian batters have to tackle the express pace of Archer and Mark Wood.
India had picked Arshdeep Singh as the lone specialist pacer with Hardik Pandya providing support with rhe new ball and that combination may continue as the spin of Varun Chakaravarthy, Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi has troubled the English batters.
India have preferred to field eight batters, which also allowed them to have as many as five spin bowling options.
“We’ve been playing with an extra batter since the last two-three series. We want that cushion and also that batter gives us two-three overs in the game,” Yadav said after India’s win in Chennai.
The squads:
India: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Ramandeep Singh, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel.
England: Jos Buttler (c), Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Jamie Smith, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood, Philip Salt, Mark Wood.
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India lead the five-match contest against England 2-0 and would look to wrap up the series on Tuesday in Rajkot. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
