Start of fifth T20I delayed by 30 minutes as Indian team gets stuck in traffic

Toss India chose to bowl vs England

India captain Shreyas Iyer shrugged off a half-hour delay to Saturday’s fifth T20I due to traffic as just “another challenge” after he won a seventh successive toss and chose to bowl first.

The toss was delayed by 45 minutes at the Utilita Bowl due to India’s late arrival at the ground, with heavy traffic obstructing their journey from Southampton. The venue is situated in West End, a small town in Hampshire a few miles from Southampton’s city centre.

England stayed in the on-site hotel on Friday night but India stayed separately at the Leonardo Royal hotel in the Ocean Village area. It took their team bus around 90 minutes to complete the six-mile journey.

“I personally feel that we’ve seen almost everything in this series, and also the one which we played before [against Ireland in Belfast],” Iyer said. “Another challenge, another day. We’re up for the challenge. It’s a great opportunity, overall.”

India did not arrive at the venue until around 2.05pm, shortly after the scheduled 2pm toss was delayed. It was eventually pushed back to 2.45pm, with a revised start time of 3pm and no overs lost. The delay is a significant embarrassment for the Utilita Bowl, which is due to host its first Ashes Test next summer.

Harry Brook said that he was “pretty happy” to bat first, which he would have chosen to do regardless, and reiterated England’s target to sweep the series 4-0 and thereby replace India at No. 1 in the ICC’s T20I rankings.

Adil Rashid, England’s veteran legspinner, won his 150th T20I cap, having debuted at the 2009 World T20. “He’s been around for a long time now. He’s a very valuable player for us. It’s awesome to have him in the side.”

England made a single change, bringing Liam Dawson back in – on his home ground – for Rehan Ahmed, who went unused in their win in Bristol.

England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Harry Brook (capt), 4 Jacob Bethell, 5 Tom Banton, 6 Will Jacks, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Liam Dawson, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Josh Tongue

India: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wk), 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Tilak Varma, 7 Suryansh Shedge, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Prince Yadav, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Prasidh Krishna

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