India fell short of completing a 3-0 sweep in the T20I series against England despite Suryakumar Yadav's scintillating ton as the hosts pulled off a consolation 17-run win at Nottingham.
The Men in Blue though lifted the series trophy, having pulled off clinical victories while batting first at Southampton and Birmingham earlier in the week, by 50 and 49 runs respectively.
The English batting unit finally got their act right after struggling to score against the Indians earlier. Not only did they get off to a much better start this time around, collecting 52 runs in the powerplay for the loss of just one wicket, they ensured that momentum was sustained throughout the innings and never allowed the Indian bowlers to settle, posting a commanding 215/7 on the board.
Ending the series with a special knock 🇮🇳
Onwards & Upwards 💯 pic.twitter.com/nRLut2wvMq— Surya Kumar Yadav (@surya_14kumar) July 10, 2022
It would've been a one-sided loss for the Indians had it not been for SKY's brilliance with the bat on Sunday, the Mumbai Indians batter smashing his maiden international ton and almost single-handedly keeping the Men in Blue alive in the chase until his dismissal off Moeen Ali's bowling in the penultimate over of the innings.
Yadav alone contributed more than half of India's runs at Trent Bridge while Shreyas Iyer's 23-ball 28 was the next highest score. Skipper Rohit Sharma and former captain Virat Kohli, both dismissed for 11, were the only other batters to score in two or more digits.
With the series drawing to a close, we take a look at some of the key talking points from the three-match rubber:
Bhuvneshwar's brilliance:
There is little doubt over Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s claim as the Player of the Series. The veteran Indian seamer was at his lethal best in the two appearances that he made in the series — at Rose Bowl and Edgbaston before being rested for the series finale at Trent Bridge. Though he didn’t finish the leading wicket-taker, the accolade of which went to England all-rounder Chris Jordan, what really stood out was his average (6.25) and economy (4.16).
For his fantastic bowling performance, @BhuviOfficial bags the Player of the Series award 👏👏#TeamIndia | #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/54YgYpA1m9
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 10, 2022
The impact of his spells was evident in the manner in which he dried up the runs for the hosts, especially during the powerplay while grabbing wickets upfront. Though he may still be a long way off from reviving his Test career, Bhuvneshwar certainly appears to be enjoying playing in the blue jersey at the moment and his roaring form certainly bodes well for the team in their build-up to the mega event Down Under later this year.
Seniors continue to struggle
While one senior was at his lethal best with the ball in hand, the same cannot be said of some of the other seniors in the team, especially the ones in the batting order. The T20I series against England was one to forget for both skipper Rohit Sharma and batting superstar Virat Kohli as they had minimal contributions with the bat, even if Rohit was once again tactically superior and VK did his part in keeping the team charged up on the field.
Rohit for one got off to promising starts in the first two matches — his strike rate above 150 in both games — but couldn’t quite convert his scores of 24 and 31 into bigger ones. On Sunday, his strike rate dropped below 100 as he was dismissed for a 12-ball 11.
Kohli’s had it worse in his two appearances at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge, with the former captain getting dismissed for 1 by Richard Gleeson in the second T20I and following it up with 11 in the third.
Both superstars are under immense pressure to turn things around as far as their batting forms are concerned, but Kohli’s copped a lot more flak, with the likes of Kapil Dev and Venkatesh Prasad going to the extent of calling for him to go back to domestic cricket and regain his form there.
Jos Buttler's batting form
It’s not just the Indian captain who didn’t exactly set the stage on fire with the bat in this series. Jos Buttler, one of the world’s best white-ball batters in the current generation, finished the three-match series with just 22 runs at an average of 7.33, his knock of 18 in the third game being the only time he got into double digits.
This is after all, the same Jos Buttler who was streets ahead of the rest of the batters in this year’s IPL, and finished without an average in the ODI series in Netherlands last month after collecting 248 runs across two innings. The only difference — the keeper-batter was playing his first series as the full-time England limited-overs captain after taking over the role from Eoin Morgan.
One wonders if the pressure of captaincy got the better of him this time. It’s still early days in his reign as the limited-overs leader, and Buttler will hope to bounce back from the forgettable outing soon, starting with the ODIs against India.
Arshdeep shines, Umran falters
At the end of IPL 2022, fans had been clamouring for the inclusion of both Arshdeep Singh and Umran Malik into the Indian team in the build-up to the T20 World Cup later this year.
While Umran made his debut in the Ireland series, Arshdeep finally got his chance in the first game at Southampton. And at the end of the series, the two have had contrasting fortunes in international cricket so far.
Umran, who made the cricketing world sit up and take notice of him for his tearaway pace, has been wayward with his lines and lengths even if he has not lost his pace, and has leaked far more runs than what his team would’ve liked. Umran made one appearance in this series, and was carted all over the park by the English batters as he ended up leaking 56 runs from his quota of four overs, dismissing Jason Roy along the way.
Arshdeep, on the other hand, enjoyed a glittering debut at the Rose Bowl, where he complemented Bhuvneshwar and helped dry up the runs for the Englishmen, finishing with figures of 2/18 from three-and-a-half overs.
Unearthing new talents
It’s not just the Indians who had a player shining on debut in the series. One of the standout moments in the past one week was late-bloomer Richard Gleeson finally realising his dream of representing England and announcing himself to the world in style with a brilliant display of 4-1-15-3.
The performance though, wasn’t enough to keep England’s series hopes alive as a whirlwind knock by Ravindra Jadeja, followed by another masterclass from Bhuvneshwar resulted in yet another clinical victory. However, it was a moment that could well inspire others to never give up on their dreams and continue working towards their goals. From being a relatively unknown figure as recent as last week, Gleeson suddenly has caught the attention of the team leadership and could very well remain in the scheme of things for the T20 World Cup.
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