Cricket News: Five takeaways for England and India from the T20I series

Men in blue dominated the Englishmen as they easily won 2 of the three games. The Indian batting unit was performing well, and the strong bowling order ensured that the hosts did not reach close to the target put up by India's team. 

India is currently ranked first in the latest T20I ranking and performed up to its expectations in the recent series. There were many positives for India, and a few for England from this series as everyone from the team performed when given a chance to play. Let's have a look at five such key takeaways in detail below:

India's aggressive approach to batting

Indian hitters attempted to strike from the first ball in defiance of the "take time and settle down" approach. The Indian hitters continued to seek boundaries despite losing wickets in Southampton. The top five scorers had strike rates over 150, and all scored more than 20 runs, except for Ishan Kishan, who had trouble getting going. The squad routinely scored ten runs per over during the first half of the innings, owing to Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, and Suryakumar Yadav when he got the chance.

Team India ensured maximum use of the powerplay, which was one of the biggest reasons for their victory against the host, as the start gave the middle order of India a set platform with not much scoreboard pressure.

Rishabh Pant: A potential opener

After Jos Buttler put the Indian team to bat first in the second T20I, the management pulled a surprise by having Rishabh Pant and skipper Rohit Sharma open the innings. India scored 61 runs in just 6.2 overs thanks to Pant, who had a brief but productive time at the crease. When he was dismissed, India scored 26 runs off just 15 deliveries.

Sanjay Manjrekar, a former cricketer for India, praised the move and said that he could already picture Rishabh Pant opening for the team in the T20 World Cup that will be played in Australia later this year.

"The fight for the spots in the middle.. it has made that easier. Rishabh Pant is out of that grace now. He goes at the top and some people can breathe a little easier now. Suryakumar Yadav played today in the middle-order because Pant could open, otherwise, it would've been difficult for him," Sanjay Manjrekar said in a commentary.

He added, "This is a guy who has succeeded at the Test level, so he has that quality. He plays the new ball well. I can just imagine Rishabh Pant on a big stage [against] a quality bowling attack.. [like] a T20 World Cup semi-final. He will be able to survive that. He has done it before on the big stage. The possibilities are endless."

Jos Buttler struggles with swing bowling.

The England sensational opener and the new white ball skipper Jos Buttler struggled a lot against India and had huge problems facing swing bowling. He could not survive even the powerplay in all three series matches, which is not a good sign for England in the future.

He's their leading batsman, and his weakness against swing bowlers came into the limelight during this series, and it's for sure that Jos Buttler has to work quite much to overcome this weakness of his as England's success depends a lot on him.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar's consistency in taking early wickets

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is not having raw pace, which is stereotypically a specialisation for quicks in T20 cricket. Despite the pace missing in his bowling, the Indian bowler has produced unbelievable balls for India on many occasions because of his ability to bowl swing balls. The swing specialist takes wicket for India in every powerplay, giving an edge over the opponent from the beginning of the innings.  

In the two games he participated during the series, Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled match-winning spells with many unexpected deliveries. He dismissed his bunny, dangerous Jos Buttler on both occasions and was eventually awarded Man of the Series for dominating performance.

The powerhouse of their teams- Hardik Pandya and Liam Livingstone

Hardik Pandya, who has been the most phenomenal player for India as an all-rounder, is in his peak form and performing consistently from bat and ball. He also achieved a huge milestone in this series while playing in Southampton, as he scored his maiden half-century and a four-wicket haul in the same game, making him the first Indian and fifth overall player in T20Is to do so.

Liam Livingstone, too, showed a peak of his talent as he played a magnificent inning of 42 runs off just 29 balls in the last match of the series. The all-rounder played with an attacking approach and hit the ball over the park in every direction. His innings, alongside Dawid Malan, made it possible for England to post a massive target of 215 runs in the match.