The first T20I between England and India got underway at Southampton’s Ageas Bowl on July 7, 2022. This is the first of the six white-ball matches both the teams will play which also include three ODIs.
India's captain Rohit Sharma won the toss, chose to bat first, and revealed that left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh was making his T20I debut.
Ishan Kishan fell early for 8 runs, while Rohit Sharma looked good for his 24 in 14 balls with 5 fours, before a Moeen Ali beauty, had caught him behind. Then Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Hooda added some quick runs.
Yadav made 39 in 19 balls (4 fours, 2 sixes), while Hooda fell for 33 in 17 balls (3 fours and 2 sixes) as India looked in a bit of trouble but Hardik Pandya slammed his maiden T20I fifty, making 51 in 33 balls with 6 fours and 1 six before getting out in hopes of upping the ante.
Dinesh Karthik then made 11 runs, as England's fast bowlers, made an impressive comeback, keeping India to just 198/8 in 20 overs.
Moeen Ali with 2/26 and Chris Jordan with 2/23 were the pick of the hosts’ attack.
This new look aggressive approach of the Indian team, who had made 150 runs in 14 overs, surprised former England captain Michael Vaughan, who took to Twitter to share his view.
He posted, “This is so much better from the Indian batters .. Been too timid for too long in T20 cricket .. they have the talent & games to attack all attacks.”
On the other hand, Harsha Bhogle said that he loved this new aggressive approach from India and tweeted: “Loving this approach from India. They have realised quickly this is probably a 200+ track. Might need a deeper batting line-up for this style but this has worked in the first 10”
Irfan Pathan, former India all-rounder, praised the batting efforts of Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Hooda on Twitter.
He posted:" Hooda and Surya’s inning won’t have “half century” next to it but surely no lesser values."
