Continuity will be very much on skipper Virat Kohli’s mind when his India side takes on England in the second of the three T20s at Cardiff on Friday.
Having taken a 1-0 lead in the series courtesy a comprehensive eight-wicket win in the T20 series opener at Manchester, the Indians will come into Friday’s clash high on confidence.
KL Rahul’s unbeaten 101 in that win means that the Karnataka batsman has very much cemented his spot in India’s limited-overs setup after being constantly in and out of the side in the last season.
While Kohli had spoken about experimenting with middle-order combinations during the England tour, Rahul’s tremendous form may have solved most of his problems.
The India skipper dropped down to the No4 spot in the first T20 to allow Rahul to flourish at one down and it will not be surprising to see India play with the same batting order on Friday.
The boys look all geared up for the 2nd T20I against England.
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 6, 2018
Will they go up 2-0 today in the three-match T20I series?#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/I2VwhOWCK6
Suresh Raina’s handy off-spin means he should be retained in the playing XI with India having no other sixth bowling option. That would mean Dinesh Karthik is likely to miss out again.
In the bowling department, Bhuvneshwar should share India’s new-ball attack with the impressive Umesh Yadav despite having a rare off-day at Old Trafford. Wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal will be India’s biggest weapons with Hardik Pandya occupying the all-rounder’s slot.
For hosts England, a change in batting order is likely. With Kuldeep running through the middle order in Manchester, Eoin Morgan could be tempted to drop down Jos Buttler in the middle-order to deal with the threat posed by India’s wrist spinners.
Alex Hales was off-colour in Manchester and he could be another batsman whose batting position could change with Joe Root or Jonny Bairstow moving up the order.
LIKELY XIs
ENGLAND: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (c), Alex Hales, Moeen Ali, David Willey, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett
INDIA: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal
