England search for best top order to continue in Bristol
England bounced back to clinch a five-wicket win in the second Twenty20 International against India, levelling the series and setting up a potentially thrilling finale in Bristol on Sunday, 8 July.
Alex Hales, at No.4 for a change, was the hero of England’s win as he scored 58* in 41 balls. A rejigged batting order had Jonny Bairstow coming in at No.6, and he chipped in with a valuable 18-ball 28 as England overhauled India’s 148/5 with two balls in hand.
Eoin Morgan, the England captain, admitted that the team hadn’t quite identified their best possible batting order yet, and that it was a work in progress.
“We're two years out from a World T20. We haven't devised what our best top six is yet,” said Morgan ahead of the decider. “We've been very flexible, or as flexible as we can be, bar the opening partnership in the last three games.
“The majority of our top six want to open the batting, but it's about finding the best combination for the team in order to win the World T20 in 2020, or at least come close to compete.”
Hales took up the responsibility well in the second game after Jason Roy, Jos Buttler and Joe Root fell for not too many.
“He really did play brilliantly. He's played a lot of T20 International cricket, and he's obviously played a lot around the world - and he certainly used that tonight,” said Morgan of Hales.
“Having the composure to play quite a mature innings, as he did ... he's not known as a big hitter but anybody who watched the game at Trent Bridge will realise he hits the ball quite a long way – even yorkers. We had quite a lot of confidence in him, but it is very nice to get over the line.”
“It's right up there,” Hales said bouncing back from a horror first match, when he struggled to score 8 in 18 balls. “The game at Manchester was a very, very bad day at the office personally and as a team, we didn't quite get going. But today was brilliant, to bounce back in a must-win game shows a lot of character as a team.”
Ben Stokes might return for the final game, making selection, and identifying the best XI, that much tougher.
“We're still evolving that. Jos has obviously played well with Jason in the last two games, but it's not going to happen all the time. We're going to have to devise a plan, what's our best option in the middle order as well. And I don't think we've found it yet,” said Morgan.
Importantly for England, they negated the Kuldeep Yadav threat expertly in Cardiff, perhaps because of the help provided by Merlyn, the spin-bowling machine.
“Conditions were different. He's a very good bowler and he'll bowl well the majority of the time. But I thought conditions at Old Trafford suited him more than conditions today,” pointed out Morgan. “I thought with the pace and bounce of the wicket that the seamers might have dominated a bit more. But I thought our plans were a lot clearer. We played him well.”