The Indian team will begin their ICC T20 World Cup 2021 tournament with a warmup match against England at the ICC Academy ground in Dubai on October 18, 2021, which will begin at 7.30 PM IST.
India will also play one more warmup match, against Australia at the same ground on October 20, which will be a day game, beginning at 3.30 PM IST.
These two matches will be the best preparation for the Indian team players, who have already been in the UAE for the IPL 2021 and these encounters will be an opportunity for Virat Kohli and team management to get the best combination going into the main round of the T20 World Cup.
Expect KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma to open the innings. Rahul is coming off an excellent IPL 2021 where he made more than 600 runs at the top and was the top batter for his team. Rohit Sharma may not have been in blistering form in the recent IPL, but no one can doubt his abilities to tee off from the start and bat through the innings.
Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, and Rishabh Pant are expected to be given the chance to play in the first warm-up match in the middle order. Kohli and Pant were in decent form, while Suryakumar is coming into the T20 World Cup after a couple of decent innings after a lukewarm second half of the IPL in UAE.
Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja are expected to be the all-rounders in the team and provide big-hitting abilities, while Jadeja will be the leading spinner as well. It will also be interesting to see whether Hardik Pandya bowls at all in the warmup matches, as going into the T20 World Cup with just 5 bowlers in the XI will be nothing less than suicidal.
Rahul Chahar might get the go-ahead over Varun Chakravarthy as the second spinner in the XI given the fitness issues with the mystery spinner.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, and Jasprit Bumrah are expected to be the first choices in tthe pace department as they had ample time to rest as their teams were not part of the IPL 2021 playoffs.
COC Predicted Team India playing XI for warmup match vs England:
KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rahul Chahar, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
