England captain Jos Buttler admitted they were put under pressure with the new ball by India’s opening pair of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh after losing the first T20I by a massive margin of 50 runs at the Rose Bowl, Southampton on Thursday.
Kumar and Singh got the ball the swing both ways and the England batters could not get going. Bhuvneshwar, India’s pack leader, provided a perfect start to his team as he dismissed an in-form Jos Buttler with a fine inswinging delivery.
Arshdeep, who was making his T20I debut, also kept Jason Roy at bay as he bowled in the right areas and got the ball to swing both ways. The pressure kept increasing on England as they were chasing a par score of 199 runs, they had to take their chances in the PowerPlay overs.
Hardik Pandya struck twice in his first over to dismiss Dawid Malan and Liam Livingstone. Subsequently, the all-rounder also accounted for Jason Roy to leave Three Lions tottering at 33-4.
England batters could not get going as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. On the other hand, India had posted a par score of 198 runs after Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bat first.
Rohit Sharma, Deepak Hooda, and Suryakumar Yadav all got crucial runs at the top of the order while Hardik Pandya continued his good form as he scored 51 runs off 33 balls.
Thus, it was a dominating performance from India as they came up with a collective show with both bat and ball but their fielding was disappointing as they dropped as many as five catches.
Jos Buttler said in the post-match presentation, “They bowled well with the new ball and put us under pressure. We couldn’t get away from that point. We came back really well in the second half with the ball. Probably a bit above par and they swung the ball consistently. Bhuvneshwar Kumar can swing it in any condition. Certainly, the ball swung longer than I can remember in a T20 game. Maybe we needed to hit one in the stands and stop that swing. We know the boys have the talent and we want to see them on the big stage.”
The second T20I between England and India will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham on Saturday.
