India take on England as Jos Buttler won the toss and elected to bowl first in the fourth T20I being played at the Maharashtra Cricket Stadium in Pune on January 31, Friday. Both India and England made key changes to their respective playing XIs. While India make three changes as Arshdeep Singh, Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube walked into India's fold in place of Mohammed Shami, Dhruv Jurel and Washington Sundar. On the other hand, Jos Buttler included Saqib Mahmood and Jacob Bethell in place of Mark Wood and Jamie Smith.
What did the captains say?
India captain Suryakumar Yadav after losing the toss, said:
"It is all about coming here and playing good brand of cricket. Stick to the basics. We have left that game in Rajkot. Hopefully we put up an entertaining show for this crowd. Little bit on the drier, put runs on the board and defend. Arshdeep comes in place of Shami, Rinku comes in for Jurel and we have had some firepower - Shivam Dube comes in for Washington Sundar".
England skipper Jos Buttler after winning the toss, said:
"We are gonna bowl first this evening. It feels like a great atmosphere already, the series is nicely set-up. Very happy with that performance, we have areas to improve but happy to get the win. Little bit unsure to be the honest with the dew, if it will come in or not. We have two changes - Mahmood for Wood, Bethell for Smith".
India's Playing XI:
Sanju Samson(w), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakravarthy
England's Playing XI:
Philip Salt(w), Ben Duckett, Jos Buttler(c), Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood
Head-to-Head
India and England have clashed with each other 27 times in T20Is so far. Team India holds a slight edge in their head-to-head record, winning 15 of these encounters. However, England has also proven their mettle, securing victory in 12 of the matches played between the two nations.
Pitch Report
"There is always a breeze which blows and it's a pretty strong one. Dimensions - 65m and 64m square boundaries and a hit down the ground is 75m. Pitch - it's 60% red soil and 40% black soil. The red soil basically means that it has a little bit of carry and bounce, so there's a bit more in this surface than the black soil. That'll suit England a little bit. When you have a look at it, it's slightly deceiving, you can see the cracks but essentially we've got a covering of grass but it's dead grass and rolled in. I don't think it's going to play a major role. But it is pretty dry, you can see some cracks emerging, that then will suit some of the pace-off bowlers with their spin. So I am going to sit on the fence a little bit here. There's a bit in it for the pace bowlers and there's a bit in it for the spinners. When you look at the average score here, it's not a high-scoring ground. The curator says that the dew might set in around 8;30 although in practice it sets in around 6:30," Murali Kartik and Nick Knight analysed the pitch.