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India begin long tour as they play their first T20 game of the three match series on Tuesday. The match will commence at 2200 hrs (IST) in predominantly batting friendly conditions. The two sides will face off at Manchester where England completed five match ODI series whitewash against Australia in the last month. Jos Butler played a blistering knock to completely humiliate arch rivals Australia and ensured that the visitors leave England without winning even a single match.
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Adding to the brutality, Jos Buttler scored England’s fastest T20 International fifty in just 22 balls at Edgbaston against Australia after being promoted to open the innings. India will be well aware of his scintillating form after the carnage he produced in the latter part of the IPL. He was one of the major reasons Rajasthan Royals made it to the playoffs.
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India will miss the services of Jasprit Bumrah. The Indian fast bowler picked up an injury while playing against Ireland in the first T20 at Dublin. Death bowling will be a bit of concern for the Indian skipper in absence of the 24 year old. England too suffer from same consequences as Ben Stokes is not available for the initial two matches. They have an amazing bench strength that will come to the rescue of Eoin Morgan till the all rounder recovers. On the whole, It promises to be a high voltage encounter between the two well balanced sides.
“There generally is a different challenge when you play against subcontinental teams. It usually exposes you to spin, reverse-swing – completely different challenges than we are normally used to. We are in the middle of our summer and have played a lot of cricket so hopefully we will deal with it.”, said Eoin Morgan.
“We expect England to come hard at us and we certainly want to play some positive and hard cricket. It’s going to be an exciting series, for sure, and we believe we have the side to put up a great fight. I want the team to play good cricket and I want to be able to lead from the front.”, said Indian captain Virat Kohli.
England (possible XI): Eoin Morgan (Captain), J Roy, J Buttler (wicket keeper), Alex Hales, David Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett
India (possible XI): Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (wicket keeper), Hardik Pandya, B Kumar, K Yadav, U Yadav, Y Chahal
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