India seek to finalise World T20 combination against strong England

Experimentation will go out of the window as India will get down to finalising their best eleven for the World Cup during the threematch T20 series against an ultraaggressive England beginning here on ThursdaySkipper Rohit Sharma who missed the fifth Test in Birmingham after contracting COVID19 will be travelling to the port city on Wednesday and is expected to feature in the seriesopenerTest players including Virat Kohli Jasprit Bumrah Ravindra Jadeja Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant will join the T20 squad from the second game onwardsTheir absence would give fringe players like Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sanju Samson one more game to make a statement though they seem to have fallen in the pecking order in Indias list of probables for the World Cup in AustraliaA niggle meant Gaikwad could not open alongside Ishan Kishan in the two games in Ireland and if Rohit is back he will have to warm the bench once againKishan has done reasonably well in the chances that he has got and he will look to strengthen his position in the team as a reserve opener with a substantial knock against the mighty EnglandAlso Read Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar showers praise on Joe Root and Jonny BairstowWith Kohli expected to be back at number three from game two Deepak Hooda will be aiming for another matchwinning effort to keep himself in the mix With a century and 47 not out against Ireland Hooda has certainly made it tougher for the team management to keep him out of the elevenThe uncapped duo of Rahul Tripathi and Arshdeep Singh have not been included for second and third T20 and it is unlikely they will get a look in on ThursdaySuryakumar Yadav who made a comeback from injury against Ireland could not get going in the games in Malahide and will be backing himself to get back to his innovative best He and Hooda were amongst the runs in the warmup against Derbyshire last weekIn the bowling department pacer Umran Malik will be brimming with confidence after defending 17 runs in the last over of a highscoring second T20 against Ireland However he remains a work in progress and needs to improve on his accuracyThe pacers including the seasoned Bhuvneshwar Kumar and wily Harshal Patel were stunned by the Irish attack and against a tougher opposition they will have to be at their bestYuzvendra Chahal will be expected to replace Ravi Bishnoi in the playing eleven India have about 15 T20 games to play before the T20 World Cup in Australia in October three against England in the current series five against the West Indies July 29August 7 about 5 in Asia Cup AugustSeptember and three against Australia SeptemberThe England series will mark the beginning of the process to identify its best XI for the marquee eventFor England the series marks the beginning of the Jos Buttler era following the retirement of Eoin Morgan Ben Stokes and star of the fifth Test against India Jonny Bairstow have been rested from the seriesHowever there is enough firepower in the England batting to rattle the opposition Both Buttler and Liam Livingstone showed devastating form in the IPL and would be looking to build on thatSquadsEngland Jos Buttler Captain Moeen Ali Harry Brook Sam Curran Richard Gleeson Chris Jordan Liam Livingstone Dawid Malan Tymal Mills Matthew Parkinson Jason Roy Phil Salt Reece Topley and David WilleyIndia Rohit Sharma Captain Ishan Kishan Ruturaj Gaekwad Sanju Samson Suryakumar Yadav Deepak Hooda Rahul Tripathi Dinesh Karthik wk Hardik Pandya Venkatesh Iyer Yuzvendra Chahal Axar Patel Ravi Bishnoi Bhuvneshwar Kumar Harshal Patel Avesh Khan Arshdeep Singh Umran MalikThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever