India vs England, 5th T20I: Team India will be out to gain a consolation win over England in the fifth and final T20I against England on July 11, Saturday at the Rose Bowl or Ageas Bowl in Southampton. With the Men in Blue’s repeated batting malfunction against England and Ireland, there could be some changing in the batting line-up. Sanju Samson, who has remained out of the side since the series-opener against England in Chester-le-Street, remains in contention to return. But will India bench Vaibhav Sooryavanshi or Tilak Varma in his expense?
India vs England, 5th T20I: Will India drop Vaibhav Sooryavanshi or Tilak Varma for Sanju Samson?
The hype around Sooryavanshi had been sky high even before the Indian team touched Ireland and finally got an opportunity in the second T20I against England in Manchester. Three games later, the 15-year-old is yet to pass 20 runs and has been dismissed by Jofra Archer twice, undone by his pace and extra bounce. With England promising to come back hard to secure a 4-0 series sweep, is it wise to keep the southpaw in the firing line? On the other hand, dropping Sooryavanshi could dent his confidence. Tilak Varma is yet another batter finding himself short of runs; however, his struggles have also been down to different batting positions in different games. While Tilak scored a fighting half-century had scored a fighting fifty in the second T20I against Ireland, his other scores have been 19, 13, 24*, 3 and 11. He has appeared like fish out of water in the last two innings.
Meanwhile, Ishan Kishan is another batter struggling for runs despite scoring runs for fun in T20 World Cup 2026 and IPL 2026. The southpaw has scores of 1, 12, 0, 49, 13 and 4 in his last six innings. Hence, the keeper-batter could also be dropped for Samson. Nevertheless, this isn’t to indicate that Samson’s arrival will solve India’s batting problems but the Kerala-born cricketer likely deserves another opportunity.
India’s Predicted XI: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson/Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Tilak Varma/Suryansh Shedge, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna
India vs England, 5th T20I: Gautam Gambhir’s position under scrutiny
With the reigning World T20 champions suffering back-to-back series losses, head coach Gautam Gambhir’s position is reportedly under scrutiny. According to media reports, the BCCI will question the players and the support staff about their flailing performances.
But Gambhir’s tenure is unlikely to finish before the 2027 World Cup.
