India face England in final T20I to salvage pride

India will look to avoid a 4-0 T20 series defeat against England in the fifth and final match at Southampton. Shreyas Iyer's side remains winless in the series and hopes to finish with a consolation victory after a disappointing campaign

Southampton: An Indian team with its back to the wall, led by a captain under mounting pressure, will look to prevent England from inflicting a 4-0 whitewash when the two contrasting sides clash in the fifth T20 International here on Saturday.

Led by Shreyas Iyer, the Indian team’s journey started in the damp and windy conditions of Belfast. It then moved through the north of England to Durham before reaching the southern city of Southampton to conclude the five-match series, in which one game was washed out.

---

Across the six UK cities (including Belfast), one thing has remained common – Iyer is still searching for his first win since becoming captain.

This is the longest winless streak for the Indian men’s team since it first played a T20 International in 2006.

The Indian team has looked completely out of sorts, except in the second game at Old Trafford, where it remained in contention until the start of the 17th over, bowled by Ravi Bishnoi.

Nottingham witnessed India’s worst batting performance – 76 all out – while Bristol was a perfect example of the team being outplayed in every department.

A consolation win will do little to restore pride, but even then, Iyer’s supporters would prefer a 1-3 defeat to the embarrassment of a 0-4 whitewash at the start of his captaincy.

India’s inability to cope with the pace of Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue has clearly become a major concern for the team management.

They have also struggled against the slower, skiddy variations bowled by left-arm seamer Sam Curran.

With Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana ruled out with hamstring injuries, and Ravi Bishnoi making himself virtually unselectable after conceding 29 runs in an over, the bowling options are limited.

In the batting department, the team management may still want to persist with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi despite his struggles against short-pitched bowling, an area in which he is expected to improve with experience.

While Sanju Samson’s omission from the playing eleven and the Zimbabwe touring party has left many surprised, the only way he can return to the side is if the think tank decides to leave out an out-of-form Tilak Varma.

However, that would also mean Ishan Kishan and Iyer dropping a place each in the batting order. Kishan batting below No. 3 is unlikely to benefit the team.

For England, not only the pace attack but also the spin trio of Will Jacks, Adil Rashid and Liam Dawson (until the third match) have excelled by taking pace off the ball, something their Indian counterparts have failed to do.

In the batting department, everyone from Phil Salt, Jos Buttler and captain Harry Brook to young Jacob Bethell has dominated the Indian attack and made the most of familiar conditions.

Iyer will hope to avoid another disappointing performance as India seek a consolation win.

Teams (from):

India: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Prasidh Krishna, Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Sanju Samson, Suryansh Shedge, Ravi Bishnoi.

England: Harry Brook (captain), Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Will Jacks, Sam Curran, Josh Tongue, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Rehan Ahmed, Liam Dawson, Luke Wood, Saqib Mahmood, Sonny Baker, Jordan Cox, James Coles.

Match starts: 10 pm.