Pune, Dec 19:
India need to put behind the humiliation of losing the Test rubber against England and regroup quickly to take on the confident visitors in the first of the two T20 Internationals here tomorrow.
Under-fire for the first Test series loss to England in 28 years and and with his captaincy under the scanner, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will have to put these issues on the back burner and motivate his teammates for the shortest format of the game.
To the home team’s advantage, a younger lot of players – some of who were not part of the Test series like flamboyant all rounder Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu – would give India the much-needed edge and enthusiasm.
All three are very good T20 players and would also bring the extra zip and verve in the fielding department which was absent in the Tests.
They have all been busy playing in the Ranji Trophy for their respective units and will be match fit too.
Incidentally Sharma, who has been in good form with the bat in the Ranji Trophy recently, had top-scored with an unbeaten 55 when the two teams last met in a T20 game, won by India by a whopping margin of 90 runs in Sri Lanka earlier this year during the ICC T20 World Cup.
Yuvraj Singh, who flopped in the Test series barring a fighting 74 in the opener at Ahmedabad, is back to the format in which he has excelled in the past.(PTI)
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