England's attack defending any score is transformed in the middle overs if Mark Wood plays. in the only defeat when they lost the toss and had to bat first, Tom Curran only succeeded in underlining just how crucial Wood actually is. The sore left heel meant him being left of the second but losing the toss was almost certainly the main factor anyway.
Wood has bolted in reaching a speed of 96 mph with one ball in the last T20, at aged 31 he's the quickest we've ever had and getting faster. He's appreciably quicker in these two games but knows he lacks variety to bowl effectively at the death. He says he's practicing his slower balls and off cutters to help with this, constantly looking to make himself more of the complete package
Most commentators think conditions are just too loaded in favour of bowling first and it'll need extraordinary interventionist measures to give the side batting first any chance at all.
One of the Indian pundits Kartik mentioned sprinklers should be allowed to lightly water the outer part of the playing surface immediately before play. First up the pitch can be tacky and hard to score on but it's all change batting second. When bowling second the wet ground and softer seam is making it impossible for the seamers and the grip just not there for spinners, while for the batsmen the dew helps the ball to come nicely on to the bat. Conditions can and perhaps should be artificially equalised even if it's not ideal.
In November it's even worse not better and winning the toss likely to all but decide the winner even when there's a huge disparity in the ability of the two sides. T20 is boring enough when so predictable and one sided but it'll be even worse when a coin decides everything.
Win the toss 3-1 to England, lose its 2-2 and into the decider on Saturday, simple as that for me. Morgan has two chances to call correctly, he needs the coin to land the right way in just one of those to win the series for me
