India seek to dominate rattled England, clinch Twenty20 series

As the India and England squads arrived in Cardiff, dark clouds greeted them. Contrary to the forecast of weathermen, the city experienced a shower. It was no downpour, but just enough to calm the nerves in the England dressing room. (IND v ENG FULL COVERAGE)

The hosts sure are in need of divine intervention. If the weather remains as dry as it was in Manchester on Tuesday, there doesn’t seem a way they can stop India’s spinners from running away with this three-match Twenty20 series.

The news from the weather bureau isn’t good though for England on match day. There may not be clouds to help create English conditions, which will be to their strength when they take the field against India in the second T20 on Friday.

There was a touch of class to whatever India did at Old Trafford on Tuesday, winning the opening game of the series by eight wickets.

Such was the force of the Virat Kohli-led team’s performance the home team were made to look pedestrian. On the basis of the first game, they will need to lift their game several notches to avoid the embarrassment of being swept aside in the tough series ahead of the 50-overs World Cup at home.

INADEQUATE PREPARATION

There’s no gainsaying that working out a gameplan to counter the effectiveness of Kuldeep Yadav will dominate England’s team meetings going into the second T20 at Sophia Gardens, home to Glamorgan in the English County, which in the early 1990s was represented by India coach Ravi Shastri.

Inadequate preparation is what is hurting the home side with no chinaman bowler to bowl at the nets. As captain Eoin Morgan bemoaned after the first game, it’s impossible to replicate Kuldeep simply because ‘there’s no one who can turn the ball both ways’.

England will be studying his videos minutely again, but they would do well to alter the gameplan of attacking him. It proved to be their undoing at Old Trafford. They may be better off looking to work him around.

The quality of Yuzvendra Chahal’s bowling is also at a higher level to that of England leg-spinner Adil Rashid, whom the home batsmen face.

DIFFERENCE IN QUALITY

Not just the loss, the manner of defeat would have created doubts whether England have the wherewithal to match Kohli’s men.

India outwitted Morgan’s men in all departments. First, the bowlers were a step ahead of the England batsmen, and then the top-order took apart the England bowlers.

Any real contest lasted only for the first four overs. Kuldeep was not the only one to trouble the England line-up. Despite three boundary hits in an over by Jos Buttler, Hardik Pandya was superb in reading the batsmen’s movements, following their feet with clever variations. Umesh Yadav enjoyed the extra pace on offer. Kuldeep benefitted from the pressure built by Chahal from the other end.

RAHUL POWER

If Kuldeep sowed the seeds of doubt, Rahul shattered their confidence with a quality innings. How he was converting good balls, producing big hits, was what dented the bowlers.

The T20 matches are seen as a warm-up for the main battles this summer -- ODIs. How Morgan and Co cope with the challenge of playing the wrist spinners in the remaining white-ball matches will decide whether the England batsmen move into 2019 season with their confidence intact.

At the moment though, there seems to be no signs of it.