Haren
In the first three T20Is against England in the ongoing series India has picked up just one frontline seamer. If it was Arshdeep Singh in Kolkata, Chennai it was Mohammed Shami in Rajkot. Hardik Pandya took the new ball and bowled at the death and played the role of the second seamer in the side.
The tactic bore fruits in the first two games however, India lost the third T20I at Rajkot and former Indian batter Parthiv Patel opiated that having an extra seamer on the night would have been better. “India is playing with just one fast bowler. You went with four spinners which worked in favour of Liam Livingstone. He went after them and scored runs. If another pacer was there in the Playing XI, it would have been easy to target Liam. India is missing a trick,” said Patel on Star Sports.
While Varun Chakravarthy has picked up five wickets and rattled the English middle-order it was Liam Livingstone who managed to score quick-fire 42 to help England to get to 171 runs which proved plenty in the end as hosts India fell 26 runs.
The other expert on the show Pietersen agreed with Patel and said, “Parthiv is making a good point. After hitting fours and sixes, Livingstone was finally dismissed by Hardik Pandya, and that is why Parthiv said that another pacer in the team would have been good for the Indian team,” he said.
Contrary to India who opted to attack with the spinners, England went with a high pace in all the games. At Kolkata thanks to Abhishek Sharma’s pyrotechnics the faster they left the hand the faster they reached the boundary. However, in Chennai the batting showed vulnerability against high-quality pace however, Tilak Varma bailed the side out with a 72 and helped the side clinch a 2-wicket win.
In Rajkot things went completely pear shape as India kept losing wickets in the chase against England pacers.
