Men in Blue look to build bigger lead
It was complete domination to start the white-ball games in 2025 as Team India demolished England in the opening T20I at Eden Gardens. Two days later, England have to quickly regroup and look to bounce back to further avoid a bigger deficit in the five-match T20I series.
Ahead of the second T20I, here’s our match preview and predictions.
India vs England 2nd T20I | England Tour of India 2025 | 19:00 IST, January 24, 2025
The visitors were put into bat first and both openers went back to the pavilion early on. Barring captain Jos Buttler, none of the English batters ever looked comfortable on a two-paced wicket at Kolkata and struggled against the spin of Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel. At another turner at the M.A Chidambaram, the English batters will have to give more support to their captain, who can’t be let to bat alone and fight a one-man battle. With the ball though, even though the Indian openers started strong, Jofra Archer and Mark Wood threatened with their pace early on. Had England been more clinical in the field, India could’ve been in further trouble but Wood and Archer’s pace certainly seem to trouble and bother the Indian batters. With two spinners in their XI, in Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone, Buttler will expect more from his spinners in Chennai, where the seamers might not get that much purchase.
The hosts on the other hand, were clinical with the ball before running away with a low-target chase. Arshdeep Singh was the chief-wrecker early on before Varun Chakravarthy spun a web around the English middle-order, leaving them reeling. Axar Patel was economical as well as was Ravi Bishnoi, both of whom should come more into play in Chennai. Chasing a paltry 133, Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma gave the Indians a flying start and although Samson fell early on, Sharma continued his charge, killing the game single-handedly with an explosive 34-ball 79 which saw India ease to a seven-wicket win. As India moves into a new era, transitioning and bringing in new players, the faith in the likes of Sharma, Singh seems to be paying off.
Moving to Chennai, we should be expecting a turner, with the hosts as the overwhelming favourites to take a 2-0 series lead.
Fantasy XI: Abhishek Sharma, Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Suryakumar Yadav, Harry Brook, Tilak Vama, Liam Livingstone, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer
Venue: Chennai
Winners Prediction: India
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