India have comprehensively beaten England in the T20I series and now it’s time for some 50 over action. The Men in Blue looked at the top of the game in the T20I series and must have left a deep impact on the English side.
Advertisement
Although the English team competed quite fiercely, they fell short by a substantial margin. The batting prowess of India was too much for the Indian bowling lineup and the Indian bowlers too rose to the occasion and performed better as compared to the English bowlers.
After India’s T20I series win against England, here is all that will change in the ODIs:
Different Batting order, may be a different batting lineup as well
In the T20I series, India have introduced KL Rahul at number three while Virat Kohli has dropped one spot to number four. Well, this was jolly good in the T20Is as everybody had to go slam bang and score as many runs as possible.
The ODI format presents an all together different beast. Batsmen will also have to graft their innings and set up a platform for the team to go all guns blazing in the last few years.
Also Read: AB de Villiers provides update on IPL future
Kohli is definitely, at the moment, more suited than Rahul for this role and hence there may be a case for Rahul to play at Number 4.
Also, while Suresh Raina was included in the T20I, team there may be a case for giving Dinesh Karthik a chance in place of him. Karthik is probably more suited in ODI and is in good nick as well.
Fresh arsenal for England
Many of the lead England bowlers were missing in the T20 series. While Stokes only came back in the last T20I, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes did not play even a single game.
The all-round game of Chris Woakes and the death bowling of Mark Wood would bring new challenges for India. Stokes would be very dangerous in the batting line up as well and can certainly cause trouble if not dealt with properly.
The English spin challenge
While Moeen Ali only played in the first T20I, Adil Rashid was part of all the three matches and bowled quite well. Even Indian batsman failed to pick him from the hand and had difficulty scoring against him.
Ali and Rashid have been the mainstays of the England bowling lineup since the 2015 World Cup. They have picked up truck loads of wickets and have also been successful in tying up the batsmen.
While this worked perfectly well against a depleted Australian side, it will be interesting to see how they fare against an Indian batting lineup which is much more capable of handling spin.
4 fine, what about Pandya’s 10 overs
Although it was expected that Hardik Pandya may not be able to pull his weight in the bowling lineup, Pandya rose up to the occasion and bowled solid 4 overs in all the three matches.
Despite going for runs early in the last match, he came back strongly to pick up a four-wicket haul which was also his career best T20I performance.
Pandya’s improvement has certainly made things easier for the Indian bowling but mind you, in the T20 he only bowled 4 overs. Bowling 10 overs and being on the money every time would be a tough task for a rookie light Pandya. It would also be interesting to see how England choose to play against him- whether they give him respect or try to target him.
