India seek to seal series against rattled England
CARDIFF: As India and England arrived in Cardiff, dark clouds greeted them. Contrary to weather forecast, the city experienced showers. It was no downpour, but enough to calm England dressing room.
The hosts sure need divine intervention. If the weather remains as dry as it was in Manchester on Tuesday, there doesn’t seem to be a way to stop India’s spinners from running away with this three-match
T20 series.
The news from the weather bureau though isn’t good for England on match day. There may not be clouds to help create English conditions when they start against India in the second T20 on Friday.
There was a touch of class to whatever India did at Old Trafford on Tuesday, winning the first game by eight wickets. Such was the force of the Virat Kohli-led team’s performance the hosts were made to look pedestrian. They will need to lift their game several notches to avoid the embarrassment of being swept aside in the tough series ahead of the 2019 World Cup at home. There’s no gainsaying that working out a gameplan to counter Kuldeep Yadav will dominate England’s team meetings going into the second T20 at Sophia Gardens, home to Glamorgan in the English County, which in the early 1990s was represented by India coach Ravi Shastri. Inadequate preparation is what is hurting the home side with no chinaman bowler at the nets. As captain Eoin Morgan bemoaned after the first game, it’s impossible to replicate Kuldeep simply because ‘there’s no one who can turn the ball both ways’.
England will be studying his videos minutely, but they would do well to alter the gameplan of attacking him. It was their undoing at Old Trafford. They may be better off working him around. The quality of Yuzvendra Chahal’s bowling is also higher than England leggie Adil Rashid’s.
The manner of defeat would have created doubts whether England have the wherewithal to match Kohli’s men. India outwitted Morgan’s men in all departments. First, the bowlers were a step ahead and then the top-order took apart the England bowlers.
Any contest lasted only for the first four overs. Kuldeep was not the only one to trouble the England line-up. Despite three boundary hits in an over by Jos Buttler, Hardik Pandya was superb in reading the batsmen’s movements, following their feet with clever variations. Umesh Yadav enjoyed the extra pace on offer. Rahul then shattered their confidence with a quality innings. The series will decide whether the England batsmen move into 2019 season with their confidence intact.