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India's successful run in the ongoing T20I series against England came to a sudden halt after they faced a shocking 26-run defeat in the third match. Playing in Rajkot, the hosts restricted England to 171/9 after opting to bowl first. However, in the chase, India kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and could manage only 145/9, falling short of 26 runs. The entire batting lineup of India miserably failed to put up a good show as Hardik Pandya's 35-ball-40-run knock became their only saving grace.
As the scoreline of the five-match series now reads 2-1 in the favour of the hosts, former India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel slammed Hardik for his slow approach in the match.
"One cannot take 20-25 balls to get set in a T20I. Can't take 20-25 balls to get set. I understand taking your time but you have to keep rotating the strike. Hardik may have ended up with 40 off 35, but there were a lot of dot balls at the start of his innings," said Parthiv in the post-match show on Star Sports.
Apart from Parthiv, former England skipper Kevin Pietersen also questioned Team India's decision of pushing Dhruv Jurel at No.8.
"India didn't get the batting order right. Dhruv Jurel is an accomplished batter. Having him lower down the order for the left and right combination was not right. I'm a firm believer in your best batters batting up front," said Pietersen.
"Left and right combination is alright till No.4 but after that you should send your best batters. Jurel is a proper batsman. He could have constructed a big innings," he added.
Despite being on the losing side, India also had a silver-lining in spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who took a five-wicket haul. Chakravarthy has been a revelation for the T20I side since his return to the set-up last year, having last played for India in 2021 before that.
During the third T20I, Chakravarthy shined with figures of 5/24 in four overs, getting wickets of skipper Jos Buttler, Jamie Smith, Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse and Jofra Archer.