India’s winning run in the series of T20I against England was brought to a screeching halt with an unexpected 26-run loss in the third appearance in Rajkot. India, after opting to bowl first, restricted England to 171 runs for the loss of nine wickets. However, in reply, the Indian batting lines folded up to 145 runs for nine wickets, with the 40 runs off 35 balls by Hardik Pandya being the only bright spot in what was an abysmal display.
As the series went 2-1 in favor of India, former wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel was very critical about Pandya’s slow start. “One cannot take 20-25 balls to get set in a T20I. Yes, one needs to take their time but one also has to rotate strike. Hardik may have scored 40 but there were far too many dot balls early in his innings,” Patel mentioned during the post-match analysis on Star Sports.
Former England captain Kevin Pietersen also slammed the decision to push Dhruv Jurel down the order to No. 8. “India didn’t get the batting order right. Dhruv Jurel is an accomplished batter, and having him lower down the order for the sake of left-right combinations was misguided.
Your best batters should bat up front,” Pietersen said. He said left-right combinations should play a role, but only up to the first four batters, while proposing Jurel much higher to exploit his potential to build big innings.
Even with such a blow, India did manage to find some solace in the five-wicket haul by off-spinner Varun Chakravarthy. Since coming back into the T20I team after a gap since 2021, Chakravarthy was revelation-like as he came up with an inspirational spell of 5/24 in four overs to dismiss English stalwarts like skipper Jos Buttler and Jofra Archer.
