Five battles to watch out for in the T20I series between England and India

After fighting neck to neck in the recently concluded fifth Test at Edgbaston, India and England are set to clash in a three-match T20I series starting today. 

While the Englishmen will look to continue their prolific run in international cricket, India will hope to get back on the winning track. 

Ahead of this most-anticipated contest between two highly competent teams, here's a look at five fascinating player battles that may decide the series' outcome.   

Jos Buttler vs Jasprit Bumrah

Jos Buttler had an outstanding IPL this year as the swashbuckling keeper-batter emerged as the tournament's top-scorer with 863 runs at a splendid strike rate of 149.05. 

However, the dynamic opener seemed clueless against the Indian spearhead Jasprit Bumrah. 

Statistically, Buttler averages 14.25 and has struck at an abysmally low rate of 87.69 against Bumrah in T20 cricket. It signifies the extent to which he has struggled against the veteran Indian paceman.  

As Bumrah won't be playing the first T20I, we expect these two players to have a nail-biting contest in the other two matches. 

Virat Kohli vs Moeen Ali

Well, this battle doesn't need any introduction, as we all know how Moeen Ali has got rid of Virat Kohli time and again.  

Despite being a fine player of off-spin bowling, Kohli has been dismissed ten times by Ali across formats. 

If we talk about T20s, Ali has got the better of Kohli on two occasions, conceding just 25 runs to the former Indian captain. 

Moreover, Kohli will be under psychological pressure while facing the experienced English all-rounder, which makes this battle a must one to watch out for.  

Jos Buttler vs Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Even if we keep his record against Jasprit Bumrah aside, Buttler doesn’t have encouraging numbers against Bhuvneshwar Kumar either. 

Kumar has bowled at an unreal economy of 5.81 against the English batter, dismissing him thrice in the shortest format. 

More importantly, all three dismissals came during England’s tour of India last year, which makes this battle a significant one to watch out for in the series.    

Rohit Sharma vs David Willey

Although Rohit Sharma believes in pressurizing the opposition by playing aggressively, he has reasonably failed to counter the left-arm fast bowlers in his career. 

Rohit averages around 24 and strikes at 130s against left-arm seamers in T20 cricket, which indicates his perennial struggle against them. 

Furthermore, he recently found it significantly difficult to play the new-ball spells of Shaheen Afridi, Trent Boult and Mukesh Choudhary in different encounters.  

On the other hand, David Willey has a surreal economy of 3.67 against Sharma, dismissing him once across formats. 

Willey can tail the ball back into the right-handers, making his battle against Sharma a mouth-watering one. 

Jason Roy vs Yuzvendra Chahal

The head-to-head battle between these two impactful T20 players has been even. 

While Roy has scored 99 runs against Chahal, the experienced Indian leg spinner has dismissed him on four occasions in the shortest format. 

On an important note, Roy averages just 19.3 against the leg spinners in T20s in 2022, which makes this battle a definite one to watch out for. 

Apart from the mentioned ones, the on-field contests between Suryakumar Yadav and Sam Curran, Moeen Ali and Axar Patel, and Moeen Ali and Axar Patel are likely to be fascinating. However, given the talent of these tremendous players, we can’t predict the outright winners of these battles accurately.