India vs England, 2nd T20I Preview: India Look To Fight Back After Being Outclassed By England In Series Opener

India, after being outclassed in the Twenty20 International (T20I) series opener in Ahmedabad, will look to fight back in the five-match series as they face England in the second T20I at the same venue on Sunday. India went in to the first T20I with six bowling options, but their batsmen were blown away by the England pacers on Friday. Jofra Archer picked up three wickets while Mark Wood, Ben Stokes and Chris Jordan picked up one wicket apiece as the hosts were restricted to a below-par total of 124 for seven in their allotted 20 overs.

Apart from Shreyas Iyer, every other Indian batsmen struggled for timing but a major concern for the hosts going into the second T20I will be the form of skipper Virat Kohli.

Kohli was dismissed for a five-ball duck by Adil Rashid and it was his second consecutive score of zero in international cricket, after being sent back without opening his account by Ben Stokes in the fourth Test earlier this month.

India rested Rohit Sharma in the first game but both openers, KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan, failed to get going as India registered one of their worst powerplay scores -- 22 for three.

Iyer fought a lone battle as he scored his third T20I half-century. Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya hit a few boundaries but even they ended up with a strike rate of below 100.

Despite having six bowling options, Indian bowlers looked less potent as compared to their English counterparts on the Ahmedabad surface.

Axar Patel, who was taking wickets for fun in the Test series, was taken to the cleaners by England batsmen. He gave away 24 runs in just three overs without taking any wickets.

Yuzvendra Chahal managed to remove Jos Buttler but he proved a bit too expensive in his four-over spell, giving away 44 runs.

For England, Jason Roy and Buttler put on a solid 72-run opening stand that laid the platform for a comfortable win.

Jonny Bairstow, who was struggling for form throughout the Test series, opted for an attacking approach and found his rhythm back as he remained unbeaten on 26 off 17.

With Jasprit Bumrah out and T Natarajan battling a shoulder niggle, India might look to change their bowling lineup by opting for a more attacking option in Kuldeep Yadav.

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Tewatia, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy, T Natarajan.

England squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, Mark Wood.

Match starts at 7pm IST

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team England Cricket Team Virat Kohli Adil Rashid Jofra Archer Ben Stokes Jason Roy Jos Buttler India vs England 2020-21 India vs England, 2nd T20I Cricket