India face Ireland in the second T20I of the three-match series at The Village in Malahide, Dublin. The Men in Blue managed a close escape in the first match of the series, where Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yashasvi Jaiswal helped the team win by 2 runs on the DLS method. The two batters scored runs at crucial stages in the chase when the rain started coming down and even two wickets from Craig Young could not save the day for the hosts.
The Irish top order was blown away in the beginning with Jasprit Bumrah making merry of a long-awaited International comeback. Bumrah picked two wickets in his first over to dent the hosts before Prasidh Krishna and Ravi Bishnoi joined the party with two wickets each. Meanwhile, the management would be thinking of whether to go with the same team for the second contest or make any changes for the Sunday game.
Arshdeep Singh to make way for Mukesh Kumar?
Arshdeep Singh had a horror 20th over in the first innings, where he leaked 22 runs to Barry McCarthy, Ireland's highest run-scorer with 51* to his name. He was the one to break the dangerous-looking stand between McCarthy and Curtis Campher when the duo rescued Ireland from 59/6 to 116/7. Arshdeep picked the wicket of Campher with a perfectly nailed yorker in the 18th over. The left-armer varied his speeds, and lengths and tried nailing the yorkers right but missed the margins in the final over. However, he gave just two runs in the 18th over, scalping Campher's wicket too.
But Arshdeep has looked out of touch in recent times and has leaked runs in death overs. In 25 innings where he bowled in the last four overs, Arshdeep gave 233 runs at an economy of 9.65. This could tempt the management to hand another chance to Mukesh Kumar, who has impressed not just the fans but the support staff too with his bowling skills. Moreover, in four innings where Mukesh has bowled at the death, he has given away 58 runs, going at 8.48 an over.
Also, the batters will want to contribute and get runs under their belt as most of them could not flex their muscles in the rain-curtailed game. Sanju Samson shall keep his place which could mean that Jitesh Sharma shall stay away from an India debut for the time being.
India's Predicted Playing XI for 2nd T20I:
Ruturaj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh/Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Ravi Bishnoi
