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Decoding dominance of Indian spinners in 2025 England T20I series
Varun Chakaravarthy has been on a roll lately (Image source: X/@BCCI)

Decoding dominance of Indian spinners in 2025 England T20I series

Jan 26, 2025
10:18 am

What's the story

Team India is currently 2-0 up in the ongoing home T20I against England and their spinners largely deserve the credit. The Brits lost 19 wickets in the first two games combined, out of which 11 went to spinners. The likes of Varun Chakaravarthy and Axar Patel have been on a roll on this series. Here we decode England's struggles versus Indian spinners in the ongoing series.

1st T20I 

England's misery in 1st T20I 

The series opener in Kolkata saw England being folded for 132 as seven of their batters were dismissed in single-digit scores. As per Cricbuzz, the visitors faced 12 overs of spin that day and lost five wickets while managing just 67 runs (ER 5.58). While Chakravarthy (3/23 across four overs) was the pick of the bowlers, Axar also claimed two wickets (2/22 across four overs). Though Ravi Bishnoi bowled four wicket-less overs, the leg-spinner conceeded just 22 runs.

2nd T20I 

Indian spinners continue to dominate 

England were restricted to 165/9 in the second game in Chennai. Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav used five spinners, who shared six wickets in 14 overs (ER 8.42). Chakaravarthy (2/38 in four overs), Washington Sundar (1/9 in one over), and Abhishek Sharma (1/12 in one over) all bowled tight spells, keeping England's scoring rate in check. Axar (2/32 in four overs) was again among the wickets while Bishnoi (0/27 in four overs) failed to strike this time as well.

Top-scorers

Buttler and Carse lead England's batting

For England, Jos Buttler was the top scorer in both matches, recording scores worth 68 and45. Brydon Carse, who scored 31 (17 balls) in the second game, is the only other England batter with a 30-plus score in this series. This underlines the struggles of prominent names like Ben Duckett, Philip Salt, Harry Brook, and Liam Livingstone.

England spinners 

Have England spinners also been that effective? 

Unfortunately for England, their spinners have not been that impactful. Though the veteran Adil Rashid has conceeded runs at just 6.83 in this series, he has managed just a couple of wickets. Meanwhile, part-timer Liam Livingstone was England's only other spin option in the first two games. This demands a change in strategy as one can see in the inclusion of Rehan Ahmed for the third game in Rajkot.