India has been flying high with two successive victories in the five-match T20I series at home against England in Kolkata and Chennai. But they have been hit by a few injury concerns ahead of the last three clashes of the series. Nitish Reddy, the all-rounder who impressed the entire world with that clinical batting, has been ruled out of the series with a side strain.
Rinku Singh wasn’t part of the Chennai T20Is and won’t be available for the next encounter in Rajkot before making an expected return to the side in Pune. He experienced lower-back spams while fielding in Kolkata. Reddy’s injury occurred during India’s training session in Chennai as he headed to the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence, the newly made National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, for rehabilitation.
There were two powerful performances from the home. In Kolkata, the incredible bowling in the powerplay from Arshdeep Singh broke the back of England’s top order. Varun Chakravarthy’s mystery couldn’t be figured out by any of the visiting batters in the middle order.
India’s opener, Abhishek Sharma, had an ankle injury during the practice session in Chennai but was fit to play the contest. He was in tremendous touch at the Eden Gardens with an aggressive batting performance.
Shivam Dube and Ramandeep Singh added for India’s last three T20Is
During the second game, the Suryakumar Yadav-led side was under a little bit of pressure in chasing 166, especially when they lost half of their side for just 78 runs in the tenth over. Washington Sundar contributed with 26 runs in 19 deliveries thanks to his three boundaries and one six at the strike rate of 136.84.
But the story of the evening was the 22-year-old from Hyderabad, Tilak Verma, who has already displayed his both skills of aggressive batting and great calculations in chases. The southpaw stood tall for his unbeaten 72-run knock in 55 balls, shouldering on four boundaries and five sixes to carry them over the line with two wickets in hand and as many balls to spare.
India has picked up Shivam Dube and Ramandeep Singh in the T20I squad for the last three fixtures. Dube, who has already cracked 448 runs in 24 innings at the T20I average of nearly 30 and a strike rate of 135 with three half-centuries, played his last fixture of the format against Sri Lanka eight months ago.
His recent game was against Jammu and Kashmir for the Mumbai side in the recent Ranji Trophy 2024-25. The 31-year-old was dismissed on a duck in three balls and couldn’t open his account even in the second innings. He picked up a wicket in the game, which ended on Saturday afternoon (January 25).
Ramandeep Singh was involved in the same event against Karnataka at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium for Punjab. His recent T20I game was against South Africa at the Wanderers in Johannesburg three months ago. In the recent Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) 2024-25, India’s power-hitter claimed 126 runs in six innings with a strike rate of 134.04.
The next T20I of the series is at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot from January 28 before the action moves to Pune for the fourth T20I game. The series will end on February 02 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
India’s Updated T20I Squad vs England
Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Axar Patel (vice-captain), Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shivam Dube, Ramandeep Singh.