India Vs England 1st T20 at Narendra Modi Stadium Ahmedabad (Preview): Will India continue Test supremacy?

India Vs England 1st T20 Preview: All eyes are back to T20 format as India take on England in a five-match T20 International series starting today. All the matches will be played at the newly refurbished Motera stadium in Ahmedabad. Team India is high on confidence as it won the recently-concluded Test series. However, the bigger challenge this time is who will play at No. 4. Suryakumar Yadav has received call-up to India’s T20 squad and therefore there might be some confusion over whether to choose Yadav or Manish Pandey, who has a T20 average of 45. Also, skipper Virat Kohli will try to get an idea of his core group ahead of ICC T20 World Cup in October.

There is no confusion about openers as the skipper has already stated that his deputy Rohit Sharma and the flamboyant KL Rahul will be the first choice going into the World T20. Seasoned Shikhar Dhawan will be in the reserves.

“If Rohit plays, then it’s simple. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma have been performing consistently at the top of the order for us and those two will start,” Kohli was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

On the other hand, a well-rounded England team look confident and don’t seem to be under any kind of pressure because of the recent debacle in the Test series. England’s explosive batsman-keeper Jos Buttler recently said that “it is going to be a fantastic opportunity for England to play in conditions where we will be playing the World Cup.”

Talking about the track in Motera, it will certainly be a flat deck. This will suit the needs of the T20 format and with a lot of big hitters on both sides, the city skyline is expected to witness a lot of fireworks from both ends. Players like Rohit, Rishabh Pant, and Hardik Pandya for the hosts and England captain Morgan, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Dawid Malan, and Jason Roy will try to make sure that kookaburra white finds itself in the stands more often than not.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar will likely lead the bowling department as T Natarajan is unavailable. He will get company from another senior Yuzvendra Chahal. Chahal could have both Washington Sundar and Axar Patel as his companions because England’s weakness against slow bowlers’ is well-documented in these conditions.

For England, multi-skilled cricketers like Stokes, Sam Curran, and Moeen Ali for starters, are capable of turning any game into their favour. There are some specialist pacers too like Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, and Chris Jordan. 

Teams:

India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Rahul Tewatia, Ishan Kishan (reserve keeper).

England: Eoin Morgan (captain), Joss Buttler, Jason Roy, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley, Chris Jordan, Mark Wood, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Sam Billings, Jonny Bairstow, Jofra Archer.