India and England will finally face off against each other in a much-anticipated series of the summer. Starting with the 3-match T20I series first, England will look to put pressure on India from the start; while India will want to bring England down to Earth after their performance against Australia.
England annihilated Australia 5-0 in the ODI series and won the one-off T20I as well to establish complete dominance in limited overs format. India, on the other hand, is coming off a record win against Ireland and will be looking to carry the same form against England as well, who they had beaten the last time these two countries had met.
England won’t be missing Ben Stokes much thanks to the explosive power of Roy, Hales, Morgan and especially a red-hot Jos Buttler. Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali will be responsible for keeping the Indian batsmen in check.
India on the other side will definitely miss Jasprit Bumrah in the T20I series as he got injured during the first T20I against Ireland and will miss the T20I series against England as a whole. However, India has got enough players in England to call up for replacement and Deepak Chahar will look forward to making his mark if given a chance.
India also has a headache of choosing between Suresh Raina and KL Rahul, both of whom starred in India’s record 143 runs win over Ireland in the second T20I. Given that Shikhar Dhawan will be back to open for India, only one of the two might get a chance to play in the eleven and it will be a selection dilemma for Virat Kohli and Indian team management.
The T20I series will be a good warm-up for the upcoming ODI and Test series and will provide enough entertainment to the crowd for them to get amped for the coming matches.
Toss:
India have won the toss and have opted to field
Playing XIs:
India : Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli(c), Suresh Raina, Lokesh Rahul, MS Dhoni(w), Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal
England : Jason Roy, Jos Buttler(w), Alex Hales, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan(c), Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett
