India won the first T20I against England at the Rose Bowl at Southampton on Thursday (July 7). The Rohit Sharma-led team India exhibited an all-round performance in the match, resulting in a comfortable 50 runs win. On the night, most of the buzz was with the Indian pacers. The quick bowlers, in the process of swinging the ball, registered their name in the one-off record.
India scored an above-par score of 198 after winning the toss and electing to bat first. England were never ruled out of the game until Indian pace bowlers showcased the art of swinging the ball.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the one who took the charge and set the tempo in the first over itself. He bowled an unplayable delivery to dismiss Jos Buttler. The trajectory of the ball started from outside off-stump and ended up hitting the middle and leg stump. Buttler seemed clueless and had to go back.
Arshdeep Singh was the one who accompanied Kumar to open the bowling for team India. Arshdeep was playing his first T20I and what an exceptional debut he had! English opener Jason Roy was not able to score even a single run in the second over of the match bowled by Arshdeep.
After the game, it was calculated that the Indian pacers managed to swing the ball a mighty 3.1° in the first two overs of the match. No other team that opened the bowling with two fast bowlers were able to swing the ball as much as Arshdeep and Bhuvneshwar did in the opener.
Bhuvneshwar swung the ball at 2.2° in his first three overs. His performance ranks among the top 0.05% of all pacers and their performances in T20I cricket in terms of average swing found.
Bhuvneshwar will hope to continue this trend in the two remaining T20I, while Arshdeep will hope to prove his prowess after making his debut in ODIs.
