India take on England in the second T20I of the three-match series at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on Thursday.
With their convincing victory in the first T20I on Thursday, England showed exactly why they are considered as one of the top limited overs sides in the world today.
After a tough Test series where they lost 4-0 and defeat in the ODI series, the visitors have shown great mental strength to recover and record wins in the final ODI and the first T20I.
On the other hand, India are not accustomed to suffering losses in home conditions like they did at Kanpur and will be keen to bounce back and stay in the series.
DATE, TIME, VENUE INFO
Date: January 29, 2017 (Sunday)
Time: 17:30 GST, 19:00 local time (IST), 13:30 GMT
Venue: Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur
WHERE TO WATCH, LIVE STREAMING INFO
TV: UAE – OSN Sports Cricket HD, India – Star Sports 1, HD 1 (English), Star Sports 3, HD 3 (Hindi), UK – Sky Sports 2 HD
Online streaming: hotstar.com, Hotstar app (in India only)
LIVE blog: Sport360 blog
TEAM NEWS, SQUAD, PREDICTED XI
INDIA SQUAD: Virat Kohli (c), MS Dhoni (wk), Mandeep Singh, KL Rahul, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Amit Mishra, Parvez Rasool.
India’s batsmen were very disappointing in the first T20I, to say the least. Opener KL Rahul’s place in the Indian team is on a knife’s edge after poor performances in his last four limited overs innings.
There are two openers in Rishabh Pant and Mandeep Singh who are in the squad, but captain Virat Kohli has shown a lot of trust in Rahul in the past.
Manish Pandey’s place is also under scrutiny, having failed to make a contribution at Kanpur which follows a poor ODI series against New Zealand last October for him.
On the bowling front, the Indian think-tank might be tempted to bring in Bhuvneshwar Kumar for Ashish Nehra, who was expensive in the first T20I.
PREDICTED INDIA XI: Rahul, Kohli (c), Raina, Yuvraj, Dhoni (wk), Pandey, Pandya, Rasool, Bhuvneshwar, Bumrah, Chahal.
ENGLAND SQUAD: Eoin Morgan (c), Jason Roy, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Jake Ball, Chris Jordan, David Willey, Liam Plunkett, Tymal Mills.
The England team put up a near-perfect performance in the first T20I and captain Eoin Morgan will be looking for more of the same as they take the field on Sunday.
It’s unlikely that England will make any changes to their eleven, unless there is an injury to any of the players.
If David Willey is fit, he could come in for Liam Plunkett.
PREDICTED ENGLAND XI: Roy, Billings, Root, Morgan (c), Buttler, Stokes, Ali, Jordan, Rashid, Plunkett, Mills.
FORM
(Last five matches – with latest match first)
INDIA: L NR L W W
ENGLAND: W L W L W
MATCH PREDICTION
India to bounce back and win.