In a disappointing performance, Team India failed to chase down 172 runs against England and lost the third T20I held in Rajkot by 26 runs. The Indian batting lineup suffered regular wicket losses and a slowdown during the middle overs as Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, and Axar Patel failed to provide the acceleration needed.
The injured left-right batting combination approach of India didn’t click as Dhruv Jurel came in to bat at No. 8. The move received criticism from former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen as he believed that Jurel should have batted higher because he has batted at both ends.
“India got the batting order wrong. Dhruv Jurel is a quality batsman. Putting him lower down the order for the left and right hand combination was not correct. I am a tremendous follower of your best batsmen batting up the order,” Pietersen said on Star Sports after the match.
The middle-order batsmen failed to give any impetus as Sundar scored mere 6 runs off 15 balls and Patel managed 15 runs off 16 deliveries. His strike rate was below 100. Pandya in his efforts to accelerate in the last overs of the innings could manage only 40 runs off 35 balls. So, Jurel came into the game in the 18th over, but his effort failed to come to fruition with mere 2 runs off four balls.
This was the first T20I defeat India suffered in the last five games. The Indian bowling was decent overall, but with a match winning 10th-wicket alliance of 24 runs from the end for England, that sent the visitors beyond 174 and into the top of the scoring chart.
Before the end of the power play, all top four Indian batters were dismissed after Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma and the team captain Suryakumar Yadav could not last the pressure they faced in powerplay, leaving the match uphill.
