Virat Kohli to open for India; Jadeja, Bumrah and Pant back in India's Playing XI for 2nd T20I versus England
India have made four changes to their XI in the second T20I against England in Birmingham on Saturday. Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant - each of whom played in the Test at the same venue earlier this week - have made a return, with Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel being left out.
With Kishan out of the line-up, Kohli is expected to open for India along with Rohit Sharma. He hasn't been in good form of late but the opening position is Kohli's best spot in the T20 format and thus he will be expected to deliver with a big score in this match.
England, meanwhile, handed a debut to bowling all-rounder Richard Gleeson, with David Willey too, coming in. Left-arm quicks Tymal Mills and Reece Topley were left out.
England have won the toss and elect to bowl first in the 2nd T20I
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 9, 2022
A look at our Playing XI for the game 👇👇
Live - https://t.co/o5RnRVGuWv #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/SkEUSwtzVW
India, having won the series opener by 50 runs in Southampton on Saturday, lead the three-match series 1-0.
India made an interesting choice to bench both Kishan and Hooda, with each having shown great T20 form off late. Hooda followed his impressive run at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and at the IPL with scores of 47* and 104 against Ireland last month, before scoring 33 off 17 in India’s first innings effort of 198/8 on Saturday.
Kishan, meanwhile, is currently India’s top-ranked T20I batter at No.7, having climbed to the spot following his brilliance against South Africa at home last month. Arshdeep had returned 2/18 from 3.3 overs on debut, with his first over in international cricket being a maiden against Jason Roy.
Ravindra Jadeja was a like-for-like replacement for Axar Patel, with the 33-year-old returning to the white-ball format after a significant gap, having being ruled out of the IPL 2022 midway with a rib injury.
Interestingly, India have opted to go with Pant as Rohit's opening partner in the game, with Kohli slotted in at No. 3.
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