Morgan’s T20 weakness exposed in India defeat
England learn harsh lesson after slumping to heavy loss
A revolutionary spirit runs through the new generation of Indian batsmanship. Rishabh Pant had already shown England as much in the Test series. Yesterday, it fell to another buccaneering left-hander, Ishan Kishan, to do the same, before Virat Kohli’s panache ensured India levelled the Twenty20 series.
Kishan was on international debut, but the Indian Premier League means all that is different playing for India is his badge. For Mumbai Indians, Kishan faces the same international bowlers, plays in front of equally raucous fans and even bats in the same coloured shirt.
As he flicked his first ball, from Jofra Archer, for four and then smoked his 11th, from Tom Curran, over long on for six, it was affirmation that the transition from domestic to international cricket may never have been so seamless as it is now for India’s T20 cricketers.
With the jaunty freedom of a man gambling with house money, Kishan needed only 28 balls for his match-shaping half-century.
In defiance of the conventional post-powerplay lull, Kishan doubled down: he smote Ben Stokes over square leg for six in the first over after the powerplay, then added consecutive leg-side sixes off Adil Rashid, even with the required rate already well under control.
India’s T20 top-three order have always been renowned for their control; Kishan adds a healthy dollop of chaos, and left-handedness to boot. While he was flamboyant, Kohli was pristine, completely eschewing risk even while cruising along at a strike rate just shy of 150.
Yet India’s excellence could not obscure the uncharacteristic shoddiness that seeped into England’s display. Two dropped chances – Jos Buttler spilling Kohli down the leg side and, more routinely, Ben Stokes spilling Kishan at long on – abetted the second-wicket stand of 94. During a torrid night, Stokes also delivered a no-ball in his solitary over; Kohli’s edge off the free hit cleared third man. After Sam Curran had begun India’s chase with a wicket maiden, a significant boost to his claims for a permanent place in the side as the leftarmer, too few bowlers followed his lead.
Tom Curran, given a chance because of Mark Wood’s bruised heel, leaked 26 in his first two overs, and Chris Jordan went for 38 in his 2.5. It added to the impression that Tom Curran and Jordan – both right-armers short of express pace but with fine yorkers and a myriad slower balls – may be too similar in style to be accommodated in the same XI.
The belligerence of India’s approach made England’s own 164 for six seem tepid.
While they were stymied by losing an important toss on a pitch that seemed to speed up in the second innings thanks to dew – mirroring what happened to England’s advantage in the first T20 – the top order were bereft of fluency.
Jason Roy found an enterprising solution by changing his focus from striking powerfully down the ground to hitting behind the wicket instead, reverse-sweeping to good effect. But after Buttler was snared lbw first ball, Dawid Malan was becalmed. For all his phenomenal T20 international statistics, Malan’s 24 from 23 balls, which absorbed 19 per cent of deliveries for just 14 per cent of the runs, was the sort that teams with England’s intent loathe.
Jonny Bairstow and Eoin Morgan were more energetic, but England required one of them to clear the twenties if they were to get up to the score of 180 that might have challenged India.
So awry was Stokes’s timing that, even batting at the death, his 24 took only two balls fewer than Malan’s. Rather than a final flourish, England’s
innings petered out, as just 35 came from the last five overs.
The cutters from India’s seamers, continually cramping England for room, ought to have provided a template; instead, these were merely standards that the visitors could not match as they lacked command of length.
A pitch expected to offer more turn for tomorrow’s third T20 may mean at least one of Jordan and Curran loses their place, even if Wood is not fit, with Moeen Ali slotting in.
One fascination of this clash is that, as a five-match series between heavyweights at full strength, it allows for narratives to develop in a way that has too seldom been the case in bilateral T20 cricket.
And while Kohli’s emphatic, swivelled six to make it 1-1 brought to mind some grim portents from the Test series – of England winning emphatically in the opening salvo and then subsiding – the visitors’ T20 team are the world No1 and are altogether more advanced than their Test side.
In the next three games, England will need to show as much if they want to hear what all touring teams in India crave: the sound of silence.