On a roll after recording back-to-back victories in Kolkata and Chennai, India will be aiming to seal the five-match T20I series against England when Suryakumar Yadav & Co take the field for the third game at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot on Tuesday.

While India’s struggles in the longer formats (Tests and ODIs) are evident in recent times, the team has had a flawless run in the shortest format with Suryakumar Yadav’s men winning 26 of their last 28 T20 international matches and are on a 10-match winning streak at home.

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The upcoming third T20I against England will not only offer the home side to extend their winning streak but also help them pocket the series, and continue SKY’s unbeaten series run since taking over from Rohit Sharma as India’s full-time skipper of the format after the victorious T20 World Cup campaign in the Americas last year.

While Suryakumar Yadav has hardly put a foot wrong as captain of the side, his individual form has dipped. The year gone by was the least productive for arguably the world’s best T20 batter as he totalled 429 runs in 17 innings at an average of 26.81.

Suryakumar averaged close to 35 in 2021, his first year in international cricket, before raising it to 45 plus in the following two years. The 34-year-old from Mumbai is yet to fire in the five-match series against England and has a point to prove following his exclusion from the ODI Champions Trophy squad.

Back to Rajkot, where Suryakumar holds the highest individual score record with his knock of 112 off 51 balls against Sri Lanka in 2023, India’s ‘Mr 360’ will look to get back his mojo.

In Chennai, Tilak Varma’s heroics helped India seal the contest by two wickets but besides Suryakumar’s lack of runs, Sanju Samson’s vulnerabilities against the short ball were highlighted. Samson, who had a memorable series in South Africa, has been dismissed to the short ball from Jofra Archer twice in the series, and he would be looking to get it corrected in Rajkot.

With Rinku Singh and Nitish Reddy unavailable due to injuries, there is a possibility of either Shivam Dube or Ramandeep Singh getting a game.

Dube, who was tasked with smashing the spinners in the middle overs during the T20 World Cup, could come in handy against the leg-spin of Adil Rashid.

Arshdeep Singh has been the lone specialist pacer in the playing eleven thus far with Hardik Pandya providing support. The team management is likely to keep that combination.

India, who prefer to play with eight batters, have been relying on Ravi Bishnoi and Varun Chakaravarthy to do the job in the middle overs and have used as many as five spin options in Chennai.

Desperate England name unchanged XI

Finding themselves in a must-win situation, England have named an unchanged playing XI for the 3rd T20I. For the tourists, skipper Jos Buttler has looked the most assured batter thus far while the others have struggled against quality spin. Smith and Carse showed potential in the last game and they would be looking to build on that.

On the bowling front, Archer would be aiming to continue the trend of picking early wickets but at the same time, he will also look to control the flow of runs, having conceded 60 off his four overs in Chennai. Leg-spinner Adil Rashid has been frugal as ever but it’s their batting that needs to be worked on.

Squads: 

India: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Ramandeep Singh, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel

England: Jos Buttler (c), Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Jamie Smith, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood, Philip Salt, Mark Wood

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