Follow UsIndia are ahead in the five T20I bilateral series against England by 2-1. However, not all has been smooth in the Indian team’s plans and their execution on the field.
England have gone with a pace-heavy strategy in the series and loaded their bowling attack with pacers who can bowl at express speed. India have taken the opposite path and have gone with three or more spinners and just one specialist pacer in their bowling lineup.
While the results in the first and second T20I went in India’s favour, they felt the lack of a second pacer in the third T20I, especially when Adil Rashid and Mark Wood added more than 20 runs with the bat. Meanwhile, Liam Livingstone was also allowed to bat at his tempo for a long period. At the end, India lost the game by 26 runs.
“India is playing with just one fast bowler. You went with four spinners, who worked in favour of Liam Livingstone. He went after them and scored runs,” former Indian cricketer Parthiv Patel said on Star Sports.
“If another pacer was in the Playing XI, targeting Liam would have been easy. India is missing a trick.”
Former English cricketer Kevin Pietersen also agreed with Patel and felt that India needed one more pacer than just Arshdeep Singh or Mohammed Shami who can come and impact the game with their pace and movement.
“Parthiv is making a good point,” Pietersen said.
“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.”
India have the option of playing Harshir Rana in Pune. They also have Shivam Dube available in their ranks.