A series win vs England could lift the mood in India camp before Champions Trophy
KOLKATA: There are some scars that take time to heal. But time is at a premium for coach Gautam Gambhir as the knives are out since India lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under.
With the Champions Trophy just a month away, it’s important that the Indian dressing room gets a breath of fresh air. Gambhir knows only a series win can change the mood fast as nothing succeeds like success.
The Suryakumar Yadav-led side thus has a responsibility to lift the morale of Indian cricket by scripting a victory against England in the five-match T20I series which kicks-off at the Eden Gardens here on Wednesday.
India will definitely start as favourites as they are yet to lose a bilateral series since winning the T20 World Cup in Barbados last year. The Men in Blue will go in with their tails up having won five of their last seven matches against England in this format. However, only five players of that World Cup winning side are in this India side with stars like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja having quit this format.
But youngsters like Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma have chipped in well as worthy replacements. Opener Sanju Samson will look to make a statement since being ignored for the CT after having scored three tons in his last five T20I innings.
Varma’s emergence as a strong player in the middle-order after hammering two T20I hundreds last year will surely reduce the pressure on the skipper, who himself can turn a match on its head.
It remains to be seen whether India’s latest sensation Nitish Kumar Reddy, who will provide another pace bowling option to the side, gets a game over Rinku Singh, who has not been in the best of form recently.
All eyes on Shami
India will look to comeback man Mohammed Shami and left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, India’s highest wicket-taker in the last T20 World Cup with 17 scalps in eight matches, to provide early breakthroughs and put the brakes on a strong English batting line-up.
The visitors might not have fared well in the shortest format in recent times, but they are hopeful of a turnaround now that Brendon McCullum has taken over as the coach. The coach also sounded optimistic about England’s chances.
“We’ve got a batting line-up which is as powerful as any other in the world. We’ve got gun spinners, very good fielders and guys who bowl absolute rockets, so you’ve got options and give yourself the greatest chance of success,” he said.
To begin with their 34-year-old skipper Jos Buttler will bat at No. 3 and relinquish the gloves in this series. Phil Salt, who smashed 1,381 T20 runs last year at a phenomenal strike-rate of 166.18, will continue in the role he took on for the series in the Caribbean last Nov and will open the batting with Ben Duckett.
However, all eyes will be on young left-hander Jacob Bethell, who had done brilliantly coming into international cricket hitting two fifties at a strike rate of 167.96 in the seven T20Is so far. Facing a problem of plenty, McCullum would have struggled to finally decide on his pace-heavy bowling line-up with Mark Wood and Jofra Archer both back after injury issues along with Jamie Overton and Gus Atkinson.
Adil Rashid will be their only specialised spinner.
“I think we’re very fortunate that a lot of our bowlers are very, very capable batters,” Buttler sounded a warning too.
