England v India T20 preview: Two favourites meet with final in sight
The surface at the Adelaide Oval will add another factor as the teams look to book their ticket to Sunday’s final in Melbourne. Muscling into the equation, possible injuries to Dawid Malan and Mark Wood in the lead-up added a strategic context to this contest.
It has been an interesting journey for India who have not been convincing despite being the only team to notch up four wins in the Super 12s stage. The four-wicket win against Pakistan and a five-run DLS win over Bangladesh stretched them to the last over, while the convincing victories over the Netherlands (56 runs) and Zimbabwe (71 runs) have been overshadowed by individual brilliance.
On that note, it has been a Virat Kohli (246 runs, SR 138.98) and Suryakumar Yadav (225 runs, SR 193.96) show with the bat for the Indians. The duo scored six of the nine 50+ scores struck by the team and put in two ‘Player of the Match’ performances so far. That has papered over their middle-order cracks with Hardik Pandya (65 runs, SR 101.56) and Dinesh Karthik (14 runs, SR 63.63) failing to lift their performances in the final overs.
England’s best batting performer Alex Hales (125 runs, SR 131.57) has scored just over half of what Kohli has for India, but they didn’t mind the hard graft put by Ben Stokes (42* off 36) against Sri Lanka.
That hard-fought four-wicket win earned them a ticket to Adelaide, but questions around their middle-order woes are as loud as that of India’s. Liam Livingstone (54 runs, SR 125.58) and Moeen Ali (38 runs, SR 115.15) have struggled with their performances which may increase their top-order dependence.
The surprisingly low number of boundaries (40) and sixes (ten) hit by England batters has been a concern although their bowling has lived up to and probably even exceeded expectations. Sam Curran (ten wickets, ER 6.40) has been a revelation, especially in the death overs while Wood (nine wickets, ER 7.71) has kept the spectators on the edge of their seat with his thunderbolts.
Team selections could be another talking point with England likely to pick Phil Salt as a replacement for the injured Dawid Malan. India may be tempted to continue with Rishabh Pant in place of DK (Karthik), while England’s familiar troubles against leg-spin may keep Yuzvendra Chahal in the mix.
Players to watch: Virat Kohli (34) ranks Adelaide as one of his favourite destinations in Australia having scored eight 50+ scores (5x100, 3x50) in his 14 international innings at this venue. Will England unleash Moeen Ali (35) against Kohli? The right-arm off-break bowler has taken Kohli’s wicket 11 times across 32 Tests / ODIs / all T20s. That hasn’t always translated into success in T20Is though with the H2H record in this format reading: 22/1 (12rpo) across four innings.
Stat attack: The Adelaide Oval has seen average first innings scores of 157 in this T20WC with the team batting first winning four of the last five at this venue, including one via DLS.India have scored 180+ in 16 out of 25 innings in 2022 while batting first. The count was 27 out of 80 innings prior to 2022.
KL Rahul has failed to score a run in 18 of the last 19 balls he faced in the first over of a match.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar vs Jos Buttler: 30/5 off 32 balls in eight T20Is.
Moeen Ali has a record of 44/1 (13.20rpo) against SKY in four T20s in all competitions, which may tempt England to use Sam Curran against Surya: 6/1 off two balls.
England have lost their last six international matches at this venue although their only T20I in Adelaide back in 2011 ended in a win.
India scored the most powerplay runs in all but one of their last seven T20Is, and boast the best powerplay economy rate (5.70rpo) of this World Cup.
Virat Kohli in T20 Asia and World Cup playoffs games: 72no, 77, 82no, 89no (279 runs at 8.37rpo, average 279.00).
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