India thumped England by 7 wickets but the debate continues

Team India thumped England as they beat them by 7 wickets in the warm-up games before the T20 World Series kicked off. When most of their questions were answered and players looked in good touch, the fans got a new topic to discuss!

Bowling first, India dropped Rohit and Varun from their squad. England also gave rest to their World Series winning captain, Eoin Morgan. The bowlers did go for a lot of runs but the pitch was anyway designed for the batsmen. The likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah were brilliant and had an economy rate of 5.8 and 6.5 respectively. In a game where the English scored 188 runs, their economy rate is a big plus point for the Indians.

Mohammed Shami was also fantastic with the bowl. He did go for 40 runs in his four, but the pacer also took three important wickets of Jason Roy, Jos Buttler and Liam Livingstone. The other pacer Bhuvneswar Kumar went for 54 runs in his four and may just lose his spot in the final team as team India might go for Shardul Thakur, who’s a decent batter as well.

It was a bit tense moment after the first innings as England posted a huge total. However, the way KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan batted, a lot of questions were answered but a lot of new questions were raised. Rahul scored 51 runs from just 24 balls while Kishan scored 70 off 46 balls and was retired hurt and gave others to bat.

Now, both these openers are in terrific form and giving plenty of options to the think tank. There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that Rohit will play when the tournament starts but that will only mean that Kishan will lose his position as an opener. Now, with Suryakumar Yadav yet to find his rhythm and Virat Kohli not in his prime form, will it be wise enough to play Kishan in the middle and then finish with Pant, Pandya and Jadeja? The think tank will have to sort things out. Something that the mentor Mahendra Singh Dhoni is known for!

Rahul Chahar’s form will also be a concern for the team management. He might just get dropped from the main team as Ravindra Jadeja is most likely to play along with Ashwin. Hardik Pandya’s fitness will also bother. Even though Shardul has been included in the 15, he can hardly match what Pandya offers. The fans are eager to see him bowl as that will give India a lot of strength going into the Super 12.