England will host India in the fifth and final T20I of the series on Saturday (July 11). The fixture will be played in Southampton from 7:00 PM IST. India have lost three games so far and a defeat in the fifth T20I will see them getting whitewashed. The series opener was washed out due to rain. India has been backing Vaibhav Sooryavanshi but he hasn’t produced the goods yet. Will India drop Vaibhav Sooryavanshi or will he continue to play? Here’s a look at India’s likely playing XI for the 5th T20I against England
openers
Despite his below-par performance since his debut, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is expected to keep his place in the playing XI. Samson isn’t part of the Zimbabwe series and playing this game won’t do any good to him. Sooryavanshi will get more exposure if he plays this game. Sooryavanshi hasn’t been able to continue his IPL’s form in internatinal cricket and he has only managed to score 42 runs in three games. Abhishek Sharma will face the new ball with him.
middle-order
Ishan Kishan will continue to bat at number three and will be followed by Shreyas Iyer. Even though he is struggling on the captaincy front, Iyer is scoring runs and he has proven himself as a batsman.
The right-handed batsman scored an unbeaten 80 off 49 in the fourth T20I. Batting with a strike rate of 163.27, Iyer hit five sixes and 4 fours in his knock.
All-rounders
Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Washington Sundar and Axar Patel will be the four all-rounders in the team. Even though Tilak doesn’t bowl regularly now, he can chip in with wickets when needed.
Sundar only bowled one over in the fourth T20I. He used to open the bowling in T20Is at the start of his career and India should once again give him the new ball.
Bowlers
Prince Yadav, Prasidh Krishna and Arshdeep Singh look set to be the three pacers in the team. Harshit Rana and Varun Chakaravarthy are unavailable for selection as they got injured and were ruled out of the last two T20Is.
India’s likely playing XI for 5th T20I against England: Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Adil Rashid
