ENG vs IND: Time For Experimentation Is Over As India Looks To Identify Their Best Playing XI For The T20 World Cup In Australia
Experimentation will be abandoned as India prepares to finalise their World Cup squad during the three-match T20 series against an aggressive England, which begins here on Thursday.
The skipper, Rohit Sharma who missed the fifth Test in Birmingham due to COVID-19, will travel to the port city on Wednesday and is expected to play in the series opener.
Test players such as Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant will join the T20 team beginning with the second game.
Their absence would offer periphery players like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sanju Samson one more game to make a mark, despite the fact that they appear to have dropped down India’s list of probables for the World Cup.
Players Involved In The Fifth Test Will Return For The Last Two T20Is
Gaikwad was unable to open alongside Ishan Kishan in the two games in Ireland due to a niggle, and if Rohit returns, he will have to warm the bench once more.
Kishan has done well in his few opportunities, and he will want to reinforce his spot in the team as a reserve opener with a big knock against England.
Deepak Hooda will be looking for another match-winning performance to put himself in contention with Kohli expected to return at number three from game two.
The uncapped duo of Rahul Tripathi and Arshdeep Singh were left out of the second and third T20s and are unlikely to play on Thursday.
Suryakumar Yadav, who returned from injury against Ireland, struggled in the games at Malahide and will be relying on himself to get back to his innovative best.
Pacer Umran Malik will be full of confidence after defending 17 runs in the final over of a high-scoring second T20 against Ireland. He is, however, still a work in progress and needs to improve his precision.
Before the T20 World Cup in Australia in October, India has roughly 15 T20 games to play: three against England in the current series, five against the West Indies (July 29-August 7), about 5 in the Asia Cup (August-September), and three against Australia (September).
The England series will kick off the process of determining the best XI for the premier event.
