England vs India, 2nd T20I Preview: India eye series win as big guns return

Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja will be back for India after being rested for the first T20I.

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India return to Edgbaston

India return to the venue where they recently suffered a demoralizing defeat in the rescheduled Test match. However, that won't dominate the conversation as India thumped England by 50 runs no less in the series opener at the Ageas bowl courtesy of some real show of intent by the batters and the all-round prowess of Hardik Pandya.

It will be a headache for the visitors to include the top billed players in the playing XI as Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja return after being rested for the first T20 following a gruelling Test match. 

Where do Kohli, Pant, Jadeja slot in?

Virat Kohli will probably have to open the batting alongside Rohit Sharma as there doesn't seem to be another spot in the side if India choose to play Dinesh Karthik. Of course, the team can bench Karthik and allow either Ishan Kishan or Deepak Hooda to open the batting with Rohit Sharma and then slot in Virat Kohli at number 3 and Suryakumar Yadav at number 4.

Rishabh Pant will also be back in the playing XI and will don the gloves as India's first choice wicket keeper. Ravindra Jadeja will take the place of Axar Patel and will provide more with the bat in hand.

Jasprit Bumrah is likely to replace Arshdeep Singh who made his debut in the series opener and bowled economically, also picking up a couple of cheap wickets at the end. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is looking in sensational bowling rhythm and has the ball on a string at the moment. He will be complemented by Harshal Patel who probably has the best slower ball in the business at the moment.

England raring to come back strongly

England won't be too disappointed with their effort in the first T20. They would know by now that collapses do happen, especially during tall run chases and newly appointed captain Jos Buttler should just take it as par for the course.

That said, they will be raring to come back strongly, particularly Jason Roy who looked like a club cricketer in the first T20, unable to pick the swing early and looking very tentative against Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh.

Jos Buttler's mindset was quite evident in the post-match presentation when he said that the ball was swinging quite a lot and all it needed was a wack into the stands. That more or less will be the approach of England going forward in the series.

The home site is not likely to make a lot of changes to their playing XI. If at all, Richard Gleeson can come in for Tymal Mills who looked like the most hittable bowler in the England line up in Southampton.

More intent; Kohli's future?

Indian captain Rohit Sharma highlighted the fact that he wanted his batters to show intent particularly in the powerplay. In the series opener, it was a very un-Indian batting display in that there wasn't a particular 70 or 80-run knock except the half century from Hardik Pandya but there were a few 20s and 30s, all coming at a decent clip.

That is probably what you need in T20 cricket, to go after the bowling from ball one and not put too big a price on your wicket unlike in the red ball game. 

Virat Kohli's T20 career hangs in the balance, especially after the kind of swashbuckling displays from Deepak Hooda and Suryakumar Yadav, and he will try to keep his best foot forward.

Predicted Playing XIs

England - Jason Roy, Jos Buttler (c & wk), Dawid Malan, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills/Richard Gleeson, Reece Topley, Matthew Parkinson

India - Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal

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