India v England 2nd T20I - England Player Ratings

The match was a fitting end to a sporty Sunday that was filled with some incredible thrill and adrenaline rush. The series is leveled after India’s 5-run victory at Kanpur. While we thought that England had done well to keep them below 150, the game was gradually skipping towards the hosts in the next 2 and a half hours. Chris Jordan, Joe Root and Ben Stokes remained decent performances for England while Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul and Ashish Nehra displayed some brilliance on the field.

Apart from the two consecutive wins in their latest encounters with India, English skipper Eoin Morgan is having some luck with the toss. England went in with only one change and added an extra spinner, Liam Dawson instead of Liam Plunkett, this was predictable too since the pitch according to Morgan was a ‘typical Indian wicket’. India added leggie Amit Mishra to the lineup for the game.

Jason Roy- 1.5/10

Today, he failed to fire like he had on other days. England have relied on his opening performances so far to set big totals and chase them too in both the formats, but today Roy was deceived by the class of Ashish Nehra. The bowler knew Roy is a big hitter of the ball, and by bowling a short one that he misjudged he was caught at mid-off by Suresh Raina. It was more unfortunate as his dismissal came just one ball after Sam Billings’ was out. In his 11-balls stay at the crease, he didn’t really look to be in for a big one. Roy disappointed today with just 10 runs in his name.

Sam Billings- 1.5/10

Billings was the first man to be dismissed for England and this came in just the 3rd over of the English innings. Had he got along with Roy to give England a start, there was a possibility of a different result. Billings fell to Nehra on a short ball, that he tried to pull but only ended up getting an edge and fell to a good catch from Bumrah as he was dismissed with 12 runs off 9.

Also read- India v England, 2nd T20I – India Player Ratings

Joe Root- 5/10

This was the only match where didn’t reach his fifty on this tour. Root was unlucky because was sent back due to a poor decision. He came into bat when England were 22/2. He stayed on till the last over and that was the decider for England. Root’s dismissal had made India’s victory convincingly close. His slow and steady 38 off 38 was building the innings for England and one would admit that hope for England was alive till the time he was on crease. His dismissal also put Buttler off the strike which was the need of the hour for India.

Eoin Morgan- 4/10

He didn’t look even close to his best today, compared to his performances lately. Morgan scored a mere 17 of 23 and couldn’t get the partnership with Root going either. His average was reeling at 73 and throughout his stay, the asking rate was only going up for England, though he said otherwise in the post-match presentation. His captaincy was decent during England’s time with the ball, so 1 extra point for that.

Ben Stokes- 4.5/10

A lot of bad luck for the English bowlers today. A delivery he bowled to Manish Pandey touched the bails but didn’t dislodge them. Stokes had a forgettable day with the ball. He remained wicketless and conceded 21 runs in his 3 overs. However, he is having a good tour when it comes to batting. Even today, his 38 off 27 was the most helpful and handy performance by an English batsman. Things would have been different if he remained for a little while along with Buttler by his side, but he was truly plumbed, credit to Nehra for that.

Jos Buttler- 3/10

The game is not over until England’s most dangerous and hard-hitting batsmen isn’t off the crease. He scored 15 off 10 and was trying to take the game away with a four and six each and was batting with the strike-rate of 150.00 but that just wasn’t enough. He was sent back to the pavilion in a stellar last over by Bumrah and that was India’s moment. His dismissal pretty much made Indian victory inevitable. He was nothing great behind the stumps either, so just the three points for his stay on the crease.

Moeen Ali- 3.5/10

He recorded his cheapest four-over spell in a T20I in 2 consecutive games with figures of  Yuvraj Singh wasn’t given out in Moeen Ali’s in his previous over but he effected a clearer LBW in the next and he dismissed him for a single digit score. He bowled with an ER of 5.00 and conceded 20 runs and took a wicket. He made sure he didn’t let Yuvraj Singh settle and was responsible for causing a momentary uncertainty in the Indian middle order, but that was about it. No more wickets and not the big hit needed in the last overs with the bat.

Chris Jordan- 6/10

His performance at the T20 level has been topsy turvy but he did a good job by translating his IPL experience as he took the wicket of his fellow RCB-mates. In his first over, he remained unlucky despite bowling a delivery that was crashing into Kohli’s leg stump.  But, he silenced Nagpur in the very next over as he dismissed the skipper who was hitting the ball well with merely 21 runs. He gets bonus points for dismissing well-set KL Rahul, who could have added 15-20 runs more had he stayed longer. He bowled a brilliant last over as he bowled Dhoni and inflicted the runouts of Mishra and Pandya. 22/3 with an ER of 5.50 was a good one.

Liam Dawson- 1.5/10

The transition of T20-modern-tactics and the subcontinental influence encouraged Liam Dawson, a left arm spinner to open the bowling attack. It was a decent first over. But he was targeted in his 2nd over as he went for 15 runs off it. That was the over KL Rahul and India needed to up the ante. He remained wicketless and the most expensive out of the lot with an ER of 10.00. He was hit for 20 runs and was pretty much ineffective.

Adil Rashid- 2.5/10

He didn’t get to bowl a single over in the last game. Today, he bowled 3 but did not impress much. He bowled a googly that Suresh Raina couldn’t read and was tricked into playing a shot straight into the hands of Jordan. Except for that one moment, Rashid looked harmless and unthreatening. He was hit for 24 runs in the three overs he bowled and though there wasn’t prominent turn in the pitch, Nagpur was best suited for spinners today and his inability to utilize that has put him under scrutiny.

Tymal Mills- 2.5/10

Before the series started, there was a lot of hype about Mills and his pace. There is no doubt about the speedster having something striking about his bowling, but as long as that doesn’t show in the performance, the hype remains unjustified. He bowled his quota of 4 overs and conceded 36 runs, the most by a bowler in this match. Though he dismissed Manish Pandey who was building his partnership with KL Rahul, there was nothing much to offer otherwise.