Mohammed Shami marks his return to international cricket during 3rd T20I against England in Rajkot

The 3rd match of the ongoing five-match T20I series between World Champions India and former winners England is being played in Rajkot. Indian cricket team won the first two games in Kolkata and Chennai and will be looking to wrap up the series on Tuesday. It was India who won the toss and chose to bowl first. 

Veteran seamer Mohammed Shami was included in the side, marking his return to international cricket after 14 months. The 34-year-old was benched for the first two games but batting coach Sitanshu Kotak dispelled any fears regarding the pacer’s fitness. Arshdeep Singh was rested for the match to give Shami his first piece of action in the series. 

Jos Buttler’s side has to win the game if they entertain hopes of winning the series in India. The visitors had already named an unchanged playing XI just a day before the match. Apart from Buttler, the likes of Brydon Carse and Jamie Smith who had done well in Chennai managed to hold on to their spot in the side. 

World Champions looking for third straight win of the series

Speaking to Ravi Shastri after winning the toss, skipper Suryakumar Yadav said “We will bowl first, looks nice and hard, don't think it will change later as well. Rajkot has always been a good track, sure it will be a sporting one. We wanted to play a different brand of cricket but at the same time you need to understand the situation and  Tilak bailed the side out. We'll look at it as a 3-game series from here, boys are charged up”

Jos Buttler said “Looks a really good surface, looking forward to batting. We would've chased as well. Looks a good wicket, guys have had a good practice yesterday and we're excited for the match. Was a really good game of cricket, we fought really hard and pushed them all the way. We need to play really well tonight”

India XI - Sanju Samson (WK), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Dhruv Jurel, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakravarthy

England XI - Philip Salt, Ben Duckett, Jos Buttler (C), Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jamie Smith (WK), Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood