Medium pacer Harshit Rana and spinner Varun Chakaravarthy have been ruled out of the ongoing five-T20I series against England. Both players picked up hamstring injuries during the 3rd T20I at Trent Bridge on Tuesday and will not feature in the fourth and fifth games of the series.
After winning the toss at the fourth T20I at Bristol on Thursday, India captain Shreyas Iyer informed that both players were not featuring in the game. Later, it emerged that they were out not only of today’s contest but also of the last game of the series on Saturday. Varun and Harshit have been replaced by Washington Sundar and Prasidh Krishna in the Playing XI.
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Meanwhile, trailing 2-0 in the series after a washout in the first game at Chester-le-Street, Iyer won the toss and decided to have a bat on what appears to be a belter of a wicket. India need to win this game to stay alive in the series. A defeat today means a back-to-back series loss for Team India, having lost two T20Is against Ireland last month. In the last game at Trent Bridge, they suffered their biggest defeat yet by runs as they fell 125 runs short of England’s 202/7. In the game before, they failed to defend a decent total of 190/7.
India desperate!
“We’re going to bat first. Certainly, and we are going to play like that [that it’s a must-win]. It’s just that we have not been able to execute the plans as much as possible [in the previous games], but today, it’s a fresh day, a fresh start, and the boys are in pretty high spirits.
“Absolutely [that they have to move on from the previous defeats], but when you say positive, you have to read the environment and have that sort of awareness about how the game is going. You need to adapt as quickly as possible to the wicket and where the wind is blowing. So, all these things, tactically, you’ve got to be up to the mark. And I think if these things are sorted, definitely, you get the results,” Iyer said.
The new captain also approved of the pitch. “It looks good. It has got a decent amount of grass. So, definitely we’ll have a see as to how it plays from the first ball,” he said.