Southampton pitch report IND vs ENG: Rose Bowl cricket ground is batting or bowling pitch 1st T20

Southampton pitch report IND vs ENG: Team India will take on England in the first of the three-match T20I series at Southampton on Thursday.

After being humbled by the England Test team who went on to register their highest successful run-chase in Test match history on Tuesday, team India would now play the first of the three-match T20I series, at the Rose Bowl, in Southampton on Thursday.

Interestingly, both the teams would field their respective Playing 11 today without any of the players who were part of the recently concluded fifth and final Test match at Edgbaston.

While Rohit Sharma would be back leading team India after finally testing negative in the COVID-19 test result, Jos Buttler would make his captaincy debut after being appointed the side’s limited-Overs skipper post Eoin Morgan’s retirement.

While England have won 6 off the 9 T20Is they have played at The Rose Bowl till date, team India would play their first T20I at this venue today.

Southampton pitch report IND vs ENG

A high-scoring venue, the Rose Bowl is nothing short of a batting paradise with the pitch likely to remain flat during today’s encounter between these top White-ball sides as well.

Having said that, one cannot rule out the bowlers’ role too, as they would have the assistance of the longer boundary lengths in place.

The average first innings total in T20Is at the Southampton pitch is 168, with the last T20I match at this venue having taken place in June 2021. Notably, in the T20 Blast season this year, with an average first innings score of 165, this venue has had teams scoring runs at only 7.93 runs per Over.

Going by the aforementioned recent T20I numbers at this venue, there is expected to be an even contest between bat and the ball today, although it is the batters who are likely to dictate terms throughout the match proceedings.