India eye series win

Cardiff, July 5 

A dominant win in the tour-opener has set the tone and India would look to ensure that a spin-wary England remain on the backfoot when the two sides clash in the second T20I tomorrow.

Kuldeep Yadav took 5/24 and KL Rahul scored an unbeaten second T20I ton as the Men in Blue produced a fine all-round display to stun the hosts by eight wickets in Manchester for an early lead on this tour. A win tomorrow would seal the three-match series for Virat Kohli and Co. 

KL Rahul came out to bat at No. 3 ahead of skipper Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina. He said that the team management had made it clear that all the players — whether batsmen or bowlers — had to be prepared to be flexible keeping the 2019 ODI World Cup in mind. “There will be a few changes in the team and as a batting unit we need to flexible in our heads to be able to perform any role or responsibility,” Rahul said.

Merlyn checks in

A majority of English batsmen practised with the spin-bowling machine, Merlyn, which was last used ahead of the 2005 Ashes to get the then-England line-up prepared to face Shane Warne. — PTI

Fact file

6 India on the cusp of a sixth successive T20I series win — a run stretching back to their 2-1 win over New Zealand at home in November 2017. They have been unbeaten in a bilateral T20I series since September 2017

2-0 Series lead will allow India to close the gap with second-placed Australia in ICC rankings. A 3-0 whitewash will help India leap to second behind top-ranked Pakistan. Australia will have to win both their next games in the Zimbabwe T20 Tri-Series to stay above India. A loss on Friday will see England drop down to No. 7 below New Zealand, South Africa and West Indies

2000 Runs by Virat Kohli in 60 T20Is make him the fastest to reach the milestone. He is the first Indian to reach the landmark in the shortest format. Kohli is the fourth batsmen to score 2000 runs in T20Is after Martin Guptill (2,271), Brendon McCullum (2,140) and Shoaib Malik (2,039)