'It would have been an even more one-sided match': Inzamam picks India's 'only positive' from third England T20I

India vs England: Inzamam-Ul-Haq has weighed in on India's performance in the third T20I, saying their total was not strong enough to challenge England.

India's eight-wicket defeat to England in the third T20I on Tuesday allowed them to take a 2-1 lead in the series, but more importantly, exposed the fragility in India's game. India's top order has been one of their biggest strengths in recent time, but lately it appears vulnerable, especially against quality fast bowling.

File image of Inzamam-Ul-Haq way back in 2006. (Getty Images)

Barring the second T20I, India's top order has been rocked, with scores reading 3/2 and 24/3 in the first and third T20Is. Mark Wood's excess pace seems to be doing the trick for England and India's batsmen are unable to crack a code to see it off.

However, on Tuesday, as the rest of the batsmen found the going tough, India's captain Virat Kohli appeared to be batting on a different pitch and zone altogether. Kohli scored an unbeaten 77 – his second consecutive fifty in T20Is for India – which gave India 156 – a total worth defending. However, his effort was not enough to save India the game, with the team enormously missing the absence of a supporting cast.

Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-Ul-Haq has weighed in on India's performance in the third T20I, saying their total was not strong enough to challenge England, while hailing Kohli's batting. Inzamam feels the skipper's knock was the only positive for India in an otherwise forgettable game for India, and that the match would have been over sooner had it not been for Kohli's brilliant knock.

"The openers pushed India on the backfoot and it was only Virat Kohli who made an effort to score runs. It's a good thing that Virat looked in good touch, in good form. Early on, even he struggled to get going, scoring some 30 runs off 29 balls but from there, the way in which he accelerated was simply brilliant. In 17-18 balls, he scored somewhere between 40 to 45 runs which is a good sing. I think it was the only positive for India in the match," Inzamam said on his YouTube channel.

"England outclassed India in all three departments. Buttler's hitting was not out of the ordinary but he still made it a one-sided match. India's 158 is not a par total in T20s. They scored some 85 runs in the first over and had it not been for Kohli's brilliance, this would have been an even more one-sided match."

Having said that, Inzamam is not ruling the possibility of another India comeback. With England one more win away from sealing the series, Inzamam feels India are fully capable of giving England a run for their money and stage a comeback, like they did in the Test series against Australia and more recently, England.

India have been known to make good comebacks. So India still have the ability to make a strong return from here. Their batting hasn't exactly clicked yet but they have some very dangerous T20 batsmen so I'm sure the next game will be very interesting to watch. And if India can win the next game, the decider will become an even more mouth-watering fixture," the former batsman said.