England defeated India by 26 runs in the third T20I to make the scoreline 2-1 with two matches to go. With the Men in Blue winning the first two contests, the visitors needed a win in the Rajkot match to keep the series alive. Batting first, England posted 171/9 in 20 overs, with Liam Livingstone’s 43 runs off 24 balls playing a key role. England were 127/8 at one stage in 16 overs, but some big blows in the end proved beneficial for the team.

Former India player Parthiv Patel held captain Suryakumar Yadav and head coach Gautam Gambhir responsible for the defeat. He highlighted a blunder committed by the team management that gave a licence to Livingstone to free his arms.

“India are playing with just one fast bowler. It was Arshdeep Singh in Kolkata and Chennai and now in Rajkot you picked Mohammed Shami. You went with four spinners which worked in favour of Liam Livingstone. He went after them and scored runs. If another pacer was there in the Playing XI, it would have been easy to target Liam. India are missing a trick,” he said on Star Sports.

Kevin Pietersen, who was standing alongside Parthiv, agreed with him. “Parthiv is making a good point. After hitting fours and sixes, Livingstone was finally dismissed by Hardik Pandya, and that is why Parthiv said that another pacer in the team would have been good for the Indian team,” he said.