Cardiff: Fresh from a clinical eight-wicket victory over England, India will aim to clinch the series when they face the hosts in the second Twenty20 International of the three-match rubber at Sophia Gardens here on Friday.
The tourists completely outclassed England in the first game as Kuldeep Yadav’s five-for followed by Lokesh Rahul’s unbeaten ton guided Indian to comfortable victory at Old Trafford.
Virat Kohli will be expecting another dominant show from his side to set the tone for the long England tour.
The Indian team management is unlikely to disturb their winning combination and can be expected to stick to the same playing eleven.
In the batting department, opener Shikhar Dhawan, who failed in the first match, would like to make amends while, in the bowling department, the pacers would be eager to display more discipline initially after coming in for punishment in the first 10 overs.
The hosts will be desperate to bounce back in the series and will once again rely on opener Jos Buttler, who continued his purple patch with another fifty in the opening match.
In order to put up a fight against the visitors, apart from Buttler, Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Alex Hales, Jos Buttler and Eoin Morgan will have to quickly learn to read the spinners.
While England spinner Adil Rashid did a fair job in the first outing, Moeen Ali was expensive and will be looking to his salvage his economy rate against the Indian batsmen who are particularly adept at playing spin.
The English camp will also miss the services of pacer Tom Curran, who has been ruled out of the remaining T20s and the ODI series owing to a left side strain.
A loss on Friday will see England drop down to rank seven below New Zealand, South Africa and West Indies.
Squads:
India: Virat Kohli (Captain), Yuzvendra Chahal, Deepak Chahar, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Dinesh Karthik, Siddarth Kaul, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav
England: Eoin Morgan (Captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Sam Curran, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, David Willey
