The England batter Harry Brook has blamed Smog for the side’s seven-wicket defeat to India in the first T20I and expects the condition to be better for the second T20I.
The Men in Blues made a comfortable win to secure a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20i series of England’s tour of India. The visitors were asked to bat first but England failed to score runs in the powerplay.
Arshdeep Singh dismissed Phil Salt in the opening over, and Ben Duckett in his next over. Captain Buttler scored 68 runs off 44 deliveries but it wasn’t enough as England posted only 132 runs in their innings.
India chased the target in 12.5 overs, with an impressive knock from Abhishek Sharma. While explaining the reason for their defeat, Harry Brook stated that the players had difficulty reading the line and length due to the presence of smog.
The Youngster made only 17 runs off 14 deliveries while Liam Livingstone and Jacob Bethell struggled to get going in the middle order.
Varun Chakravarthy picked three wickets and created havoc in the middle order while Axar Patel played the perfect supporting cast.
“I didn’t face Bishnoi but Chakravarthy is an exceptionally good bowler. He’s tough to pick. I think actually with the smog the other night, it was a lot harder to pick as well. Hopefully, the air is a bit clearer here and we can see the ball a bit easier.”
“He’s an exceptional bowler and has got a lot of skills with extreme accuracy as well. Their spinners are their key threat, so we will look to put pressure on them, take them down, put as much pressure as we can on them, and hopefully they crumble from there,” said Harry Brook.
Meanwhile England are set to make one change to their playing 11 for the second T20I. Gus Atkinson has been replaced by Brydon Carse. Meanwhile Jamie Smith is set to come into the squad as Jacob Bethell was reported to be ill.
The second match of the T20I series will be played on January 25 at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.
