Indian team for 1st T20 against England looks stronger

20 December, 2012

Following the defeat in the Test series, India is keen for a victory in the first T20 match against England, to be played this evening at Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune. The Indian team on paper looks a stronger outfit than the English team, who would play without their key players such as Kevin Pietersen and James Anderson.

INDIA, ON the other hand, has fielded the best possible team, but both the squads have their own strengths and weaknesses. Indians may have a big advantage as they would be playing under home conditions against a relatively inexperienced English team, which would be led by Eoin Morgan, the stand-in captain for the two T20 internationals.

The Indian team for sure looks stronger of the two with experienced players such as Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh, who would form the core of the Indian batting line-up. It is players like Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina, who would bring in the much-needed confidence to the Indian side, as these players were not a part of the team, which lost the Test series.

England has decided to go ahead with many youngsters like Jonny Bairstow, Tim Bresnan, Alex Hales, Michael Lumb and Luke Wright. But, it is primarily the Indian bowlers, who have been the weaker link in all formats of the game. It is no different this time with bowlers such as Piyush Chawla, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ashok Dinda, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun and Parvinder Awana included in the squad.

Apart from Dinda and Ashwin, the Indian bowlers look relatively weak. The English batsmen such as Lumb and Wright could take advantage of this situation by going after weak Indian bowling line-up.

The Indian team could relish their batting display as England's front line bowlers such as James Anderson, Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar don’t feature in the shortest format. It is this trio that made life difficult for the Indian batsmen in the Test series.