Bowling Gives India Slight Advantage Over England, Reckons Harbhajan Singh

Veteran India spinner Harbhajan Singh feels India will have slight advantage over England in the upcoming T20I series because of their bowling lineup.

India will have their task cut out against England who have looked unstoppable in limited-overs cricket.  The current world number one ODI side blew away Australia in the ODIs and T20Is.

England batsmen absolutely massacred the Australian bowlers in the series.  In five games, they scored 300-plus total on three occasions. The two times they missed out was because they were chasing 200-plus totals.

In the third ODI, they had scored a staggering 481 for six – the highest-ever total in the ODI history.  They had also dominated the one-off T20, scoring 221 before restricting Australia to 193.

However, Harbhajan feels India have the upper hand over the hosts because of their more experienced bowling lineup compared to England’s.

“I was looking at England’s bowling lineup and they don’t have any big name.  There is no player who has won games for England with his bowling. India have a big advantage in the sense that they have got very good bowlers.  Whether he is Yuzvendra Chahal or Kuldeep Yadav or Bhuvneshwar Kumar, all are experienced players,” he told Aaj Tak.

He went on to say that Chahal and Kuldeep could be India’s x-factor against England. Both the spinners once again proved their worth by accounting for 13 wickets in the recently-concluded two-match series against Ireland.

“The spin twins will be the x-factor against England. England have never played well against wrist-spinners and we have got two of them,” he said.

India, meanwhile, have suffered a huge blow ahead of the much-anticipated series. They have lost two of their key bowlers due to injury. Both Jasprit Bumrah and Washington Sundar have been ruled out of the T20Is due to their respective injuries.

The T20 series gets underway on July 3 in Old Trafford.