Friday 27 January 2017 07:10, UK
England produced a 'complete performance' to win the first T20I against India, according to Nasser Hussain.
Eoin Morgan's men cruised to victory by seven wickets with 11 balls to spare, having restricted the hosts to 147-7 with a fine bowling display.
Hussain was suitably impressed and believes that with a destructive batting lineup already established, if the bowlers can perform as they did in Kanpur on a consistent basis then England will take some stopping in white-ball cricket.
"England were exceptional. Not just the ability they showed, but how smart they were and how well led by Morgan," he told Sky Sports. "That was a complete performance today.
"If they can get the bowling right in one-day cricket then England will be a force to be reckoned with. Their problem is that their best two bowlers in T20, Chris Jordan and Tymal Mills, don't really play 50-over cricket.
"Jordan is a great death bowler but what does he offer you earlier on in the innings? And Mills, because of his body, doesn't play 50-over cricket. That's England's quandary. I said before a ball went down today, I think this is a better lineup with the white ball [than in the ODIs] and they showed it.
"England completely outbowled India. India bowled on it as if they hadn't seen the first 20 overs. Even at the end when they did drag their length back, it did look a bit two-paced and those cross-bat shots looked really tricky.
"The first two overs, India came up and bowled beautiful little, floaty drive balls and Jason Roy and Sam Billings just whacked it everywhere. England were smarter than India with the ball, which is not something we could say much in the last three months out here."
Hussain also hailed Morgan's captaincy and, in particular, how he shuffled his bowlers and took risks when necessary.
"I thought Morgan was smart today, Liam Plunkett bowled two overs for 22 and he had Adil Rashid up his sleeve," he added.
"A weaker, lesser captain would have gone to the spinner but he had Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh in, who have historically had problems against the short ball. Morgan went for Plunkett and he bounced out Yuvraj.
"England consistently took wickets so he didn't need to bowl Adil Rashid. At times in one-day cricket, you make it up as you go along. I thought Morgan was exceptional today, and with the bat."
