dailynewsnblog
Big picture: India seek more than a consolation
In addition to all of the above, victory for England in the fifth T20I would see them swipe India’s No.1 ICC ranking. Which won’t count for much, given India have won the last two men’s T20 World Cups – but would be another little boost for the burgeoning captain-coach duo of Harry Brook and Brendon McCullum, who might soon be working together in the red-ball format, too. England have now won 19 out of 22 games since the start of last summer and are playing T20 cricket as well as they ever have.
Form guide
India LLLLL (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
England WWWLW
In the spotlight: Jos Buttler and Shreyas Iyer
Another failure in Bristol extended Jos Buttler‘s run to 18 innings without reaching 40 in T20Is. During that time, he has averaged 15.16 at a strike rate of 131.88 – both well below his career average. His opening partnership with Phil Salt has historically been a strength for England but only one of them is contributing right now.
When he arrived in Belfast for the start of this tour, Shreyas Iyer surely had high hopes. Six completed games later, his only success has come at the toss (of which he has won all six). At least he had shown some form with the bat, though an unbeaten 80 from 48 in the last game just highlighted the lack of support from his team.
Team news: Shedge in contention?
Brook suggested England would “stick to their guns” when asked about potential rotation. Rehan Ahmed was picked for his extra batting on a smaller ground in Bristol – but neither he nor Liam Dawson has bowled a ball or faced one in the last two games regardless.
England: (probable) 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Harry Brook (capt), 4 Jacob Bethell, 5 Tom Banton, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Rehan Ahmed, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Josh Tongue
India could bring in Suryansh Shedge for Dube to break up the run of left-handers and give him another look. They will be without Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy, who both suffered tour-ending injuries in Nottingham.
India: (probable) 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Shivam Dube/Suryansh Shedge, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Prince Yadav, 11 Prasidh Krishna
Pitch and conditions: Big boundaries and good memories for India
Stats and trivia
- Dawson’s omission in Bristol ended his run of 24 consecutive T20I appearances dating back to last June.
- Adil Rashid will become only the sixth player to reach 150 men’s T20I caps if he plays on Saturday. Jos Buttler is set to win his 160th T20I cap, pulling clear of George Dockrell and Rohit Sharma as the second most-capped player in the format behind Paul Stirling (163).
- Phil Salt faced a first-over maiden in only one of his first 341 T20 appearances, against Sam Curran at Hove in 2018; thanks to Arshdeep Singh, he has now done so in back-to-back games.
Quotes
“We’re playing some exceptional cricket. We probably didn’t expect to be going into Southampton 3-0 up, but we’ve played some really good cricket.”
Harry Brook says England’s dominance has taken even him by surprise
“The big prize is two years down the line in Australia. Do we want to be a team that smashes 250 in India and looks great when you hit an 80-metre six at Eden Gardens? Or do we want to come to places like [Bristol] and Manchester and Southampton where things are slightly different – and, thinking further down the line, the MCG and those sorts of places? Do we want to be the team that excels in different conditions?”
India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate challenges his batters to become more adaptable
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at Cricinfo. @alanroderick
