India won the second T20I against England on March 14 which was played in Motera, Ahmedabad, and leveled the series 1-1. England had won the first T20I on March 12 at the same venue and now the third T20I will be played on March 16.
The Indian team came back strongly to win by 7 wickets after Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to field. After restricting England to 164/6 with Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur taking 2 wickets each; India chased down the total easily.
Virat Kohli made 73* and Ishan Kishan, on his India debut, scored 56 runs, while Rishabh Pant added finishing touches with 26 in 13 balls. Now England will be looking forward to winning the third T20I and taking the lead once again.
Here is COC Predicted Team India Playing XI for the third T20I against England
KL Rahul has played in both T20Is and made 1 run. In the second T20I, he looked uncomfortable in the first over, bowled by Sam Curran, and finally was caught behind on the last ball for a duck. He has looked rusty in both games and India might be tempted to bring in Rohit Sharma for the third T20I.
Sharma has not played a white-ball game for India since New Zealand in 2020 and will be itching to get back to action in the shortest format. He was rested for the first two T20Is, after playing in the four-match Test series before.
The rest of the Indian team is expected to remain the same, especially after Ishan Kishan’s spectacular debut, Virat Kohli becoming the first batsman to reach 3,000 T20I runs and Rishabh Pant continuing his good form in T20Is as well.
Suryakumar Yadav might get a push up the order to give him game time, while Hardik Pandya bowling was a good sign for India, his batting remains dangerous as ever. Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal bowled amazingly well and kept the England batsmen guessing.
India had taken a huge risk going in with four specialist bowlers but Shardul Thakur and Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled pretty well to contain the opposition batting, something that Kohli hopes it continues.
COC Predicted Team India playing XI for the third T20I against England:
Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli (C), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal