IND vs ENG 3rd T20I pitch report: India and England are gearing up for the third round of their five-match face-off in the ongoing T20I series. After two games, it is India who hold the lead 2-0 and are eyeing a series win as soon as it can be. Meanwhile, England ran the hosts close in the second T20I, only to fall short of a brilliance from Tilak Varma.
The Mumbai Indians batter Tilak showed nerves of steel in the second game on a two-paced surface when almost every other batter was finding it hard to score. His 72-run knock helped the hosts chase down a middling total of 166 in Chennai.
The caravan now moves to the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot for the third match. Ahead of all the action, here is all you need to know about the venue.
Niranjan Shah Stadium pitch report
The Niranjan Shah Stadium, previously known as the Saurashtra Cricket Academy Stadium, has hosted five T20Is previously. India have won four of them and have lost only one - to New Zealand in 2017.
The venue has two types of surfaces. The first one is a true batting surface with a road-like pitch. There are a lot of runs on offer on that strip. However, there is another strip which has strong assistance for the spinners. Considering this a T20I game, a flat track should be on offer, but don't rule out a spinning surface.
Niranjan Shah Stadium - The Numbers Game
STATS - T20I
Total Matches - 5
Matches won batting first - 3
Matches won bowling first - 2
Average 1st innings Score - 189
Average 2nd innings Score - 147
Highest total recorded - 228/5 (20 Ovs) By IND vs SL
Lowest total recorded - 87/10 (16.5 Ovs) By RSA vs IND
Highest score chased - 202/4 (19.4 Ovs) By IND vs AUS
Lowest score defended - 196/2 (20 Ovs) By NZ vs IND
India's squad: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Shivam Dube, Ramandeep Singh , Mohammed Shami
England's squad: Ben Duckett, Philip Salt (wk), Jos Buttler (c), Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jamie Smith, Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Saqib Mahmood, Rehan Ahmed, Jacob Bethell, Gus Atkinson