India vs England 3rd T20I Live Score: Shami Likely to Sit Out as IND Aim for Series Win

India vs England 3rd T20I Live Score: It is Mohammed Shami replacing Arshdeep Singh, who according to Suryakumar Yadav is rested for the third T20I with England at Rajkot. India called right the toss and elected to insert the opposition. The win today would seal the series for India with two matches still to come. However, England's adaptation to spin and their bowling attack in the second T20I was much better than in the first.

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So far, India has had two very different types of victories in the T20I series with England and yet another win today will guarantee them another series victory at home. The Eden Gardens T20I saw India winning against England in a rather lame way, with seven wickets and 43 balls to spare, but in the second game, a brilliant knock from Tilak Varma got them through the finishing line with two wickets and four balls left.

It almost worked for England in the second T20I at Chepauk when they threw everything including the kitchen sink at the Indian bowlers, especially the spinners. They probably would have applied that same method again in Rajkot, even if what they did today did not work at Chennai. Such is Bazball.

However, they have their work cut out for themselves - in India, they are facing a team that has won 15 of the 17 T20Is played since the T20 World Cup victory in 2024. Moreover, India has been invincible in their last 17 home T20I series, their last such defeat coming in February 2019 against Australia when India lost 0-2.

Also, it appears as if during that dominate phase, India has undergone a paradigm shift in its approach towards T20 cricket. There are no longer any preserves called top-order anchors or middle-order sloggers, all are slogging now. Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson haven't had that many big opening partnerships but mostly because they have attempted mostly to hit all the bowlers out of the ground during the powerplay. Tilak has been a wowing revelation at No.3.

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Oddly, some doubts have crept into whether Suryakumar Yadav will really be captain now following the T20 World Cup, even though not even a faint alarm is bothering the captain. Up to now in the series, Suryakumar has scored only 12 runs at a 120 strike rate. Naught has he to show for himself post the T20 World Cup save for two fifties and 242 runs scored at an average of 23.

In the bowling department, it looks highly likely that Shami will make himself unavailable for these games also. Besides, given the way Arshdeep's been bowling, he is practically undroppable right now. He sits on the edge, on the verge of becoming the first Indian to take 100 wickets in T20Is.

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