India’s white-ball revolution under Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma continues to bear fruit as the Men in Blue bounced back in style after the disappointment of drawing the Test series 2-2. With their twin 2-1 victories over the past fortnight, India became the only team to beat England in England in both bilateral limited-overs series since their white-ball reset under Eoin Morgan in 2015. More than the result, it was the performances that will please the Indian camp as the visitors comfortably outclassed the hosts with bat and ball in the T20Is before picking up thirty wickets in the three 50-over games to clinch the ODI series against the reigning World Champions.
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There have been plenty of dazzling individual performances from Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, and Rishabh Pant across the six white-ball games and here is our report card for the Men in Blue for the limited-overs leg of the tour.
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After enduring a slow start to his white-ball career for India, Rishabh Pant finally announced his arrival in the limited overs format as he smashed his maiden ODI century in the all-important decider in Manchester. After falling for a duck at Lord’s and struggling to impress as an opener in the final two T20Is, the left-hander made amends at Old Trafford, rescuing India from 74 for 4 and guiding the Men in Blue to victory alongside Hardik Pandya.
Pant became just the fourth Indian wicketkeeper after Rahul Dravid, MS Dhoni, and KL Rahul to reach the three-figure mark, and the left-hander is now also the only Indian after Virat Kohli to score 125 plus in a run chase while batting at number four or lower.
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Virat Kohli’s terrible run of form in 2022 continued in the white-ball leg of the tour against England as the number three struggled for fluency and timing at the crease. After scoring just 12 runs in two innings in the T20Is, Kohli couldn’t even find his touch in his strongest format, with the superstar amassing just 33 runs at Lord’s and Old Trafford in the ODIs. Adding to the frustration, it’s the same flaw that continues to plague Kohli, with the right-hander unable to resist the temptation of poking at deliveries outside off-stump and feathering feint edges to the cordon.
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Although Bumrah played just three of India’s six white-ball games on this tour, the pacer made his presence felt on the field with his eye-catching performances with the ball. Bumrah reaffirmed his status as the greatest all-format bowler in the world as he starred alongside Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the second T20I in Edgbaston to dismiss England for 121 before picking up career-best figures in the opening ODI at the Oval.
Bumrah extracted plenty of swing and seam at high pace to castle the fabled English top order, finishing with 6 for 19 in just 7.2 overs to help the Men in Blue bundle England out for their lowest score against India in ODIs.
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The biggest positive for Rahul Dravid and team India in the white-ball leg of the tour was the form of Hardik Pandya. In the past fortnight, Pandya registered his best bowling figures in ODI and T20I cricket as well as his highest score in T20Is as the all-rounder returned to the top of his game in India colours in white-ball cricket. Pandya’s performances across the ODI and T20I series served as a reminder that he is still head and shoulders above the other pace-bowling all-rounders in Indian cricket who provides the perfect balance to the side with his skills with bat and ball.
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Yuzvendra Chahal was at his consistent best for India across the six white-ball games as the leg-spinner asserted his reputation as the best spinner in the country. Although India’s superlative new-ball performance across the two series’ ensured that Chahal was bowling at middle-order batters on most occasions, the leg-spinner did blow the game open for India at Lord’s the one time England got out of the powerplay unscathed. Chahal also finished with respectable economy rates of 7 and 5.3 across both series, sealing his place in India’s first XI for the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia in October.
[Featured Image Credit: ANI]
Shivaan Shah