After India’s dramatic win against England in the second T20I at Nagpur on Sunday, we now move on to the final T20I of the series at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
After two low-scoring games, expect a different type of match on Wednesday as the Chinnaswamy Stadium is known to hand out batting-friendly wickets and the short boundaries will also help the batsmen.
The Indians would have got some confidence back after Sunday’s victory and England will know that they won’t get many better chances of registering a limited overs series win on Indian soil.
DATE, TIME, VENUE INFO
Date: February 1, 2017 (Wednesday)
Time: 17:30 GST, 19:00 local time (IST), 13:30 GMT
Venue: M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
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 haven’t quite come to the party yet in this series. They haven’t been able to cross 150 in the two T20Is so far, though the performance at Nagpur can be forgiven as it was a tough pitch to bat on.
The conditions at Bengaluru, though, should help the batsmen to get back into their grove.
Although Manish Pandey made the second highest score by an Indian in the second T20I, he looked out of touch for most parts of his innings so don’t be surprised if Rishabh Pant or Mandeep Singh get a game.
In the bowling department, India might be tempted to play an extra pacer in Bhuvneshwar Kumar for Amit Mishra.
PREDICTED INDIA XI: Rahul, Kohli (c), Raina, Yuvraj, Dhoni (wk), Pant, Pandya, Mishra, Bumrah, Chahal, Nehra.
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.
England need to get back on their feet and put what happened in Nagpur behind them.
Liam Dawson was brought into the side for the second T20I but his bowling performance wasn’t up to the mark so it’s likely that a fast bowler will take his place in the XI.
If David Willey is fit, he should make the team. If not, either Liam Plunkett or Jake Ball will take up the spot.
PREDICTED ENGLAND XI: Roy, Billings, Root, Morgan (c), Buttler, Stokes, Ali, Jordan, Rashid, Plunkett, Mills.
FORM
(Last five matches – with latest match first)
INDIA: W L NR L W W
ENGLAND: L W L W L
MATCH PREDICTION
This is a very tough game to predict, with two powerhouse batting line-ups set to face off at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. England should enjoy batting here and will have the edge, but the toss will play a big factor in the result.
England to win.