🏏India XI vs England XI:1st T20I AT Southampton 🏏 - Page 2

What they said:

"He [Umran Malik] is very much in our plans. It's just about trying to give him that understanding as to what the team requires from him as well. Yes, there'll be times when we want to try out a few guys and Umran is definitely one of those guys where keeping one eye on the World Cup, we want to see what he has to offer for us. He's definitely an exciting prospect, there's no doubt about it. We all saw it during the IPL, he can bowl fast. It's just about giving him the role." - Rohit Sharma

Preview by Kaushik Rangarajan

It is the reality of the looming World Cup that India are close to being back at full strength for a T20I series that starts two days after a gruelling Test match. Well almost. Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli will be available only from the second game of the series but that aside, the rest of the squad has been hard at work with a sense of urgency that build-ups to bilateral T20Is otherwise lack in non-World Cup years.

India, who have played four T20s (vs Ireland, Northamptonshire and Derbyshire) in the last 10 days, have won 13 of the 15 completed T20Is since tumbling out of the group stages of last year's World Cup, most while not fielding their top players. It's a formidable record in a fickle format, one that is representative of both their baseline level as well as their resource pool.

However, one defeat in Delhi and another near loss to Ireland in Dublin in their last international outing stood out with a familiar rhetoric. Do India have the T20 tactical wherewithal to counter big-hitting sides on flat surfaces, the kinds of which are likely in Australia? There has been a conscious change to addressing this concern, reflected in the improved strike-rates (139.56) and boundary percentages (16.2%) through the middle-overs (7-15) since last year's World Cup. For reference, they hit at 119.48 with a mere 11.3% boundary share between January 2020 and October 2021. It remains to be seen if they can retain this adventurism when the old heads return.

In that regard, England, even one missing many of their power players, will provide the ultimate litmus to gauge how far along they've come on the road to World Cup readiness. Days after their Test team received a bold validative tick, England will herald a transition of a slightly less epochal variety. Jos Buttler will take over as captain officially but he has been the T20 sheriff for a while now. There is unlikely to be a change in playing style, an ode to the enduring white-ball prowess of the team for seven years now. For the new captain though, this is an early staging post in the quest for the next ICC silverware that has slipped away in the final stages of the last two T20 WCs.

Bazball' has been the most used word over the last few weeks. England, with Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes at the helm, are trying to rewrite how Test cricket is played. The action, now, shifts to the shorter formats. This is Jos Buttler's first assignment as England's full-time white-ball captain following Eoin Morgan's retirement. Matthew Mott, meanwhile, is just three ODIs old as England's limited overs coach. Everyone knows their brand of cricket when it comes to ODIs and T20Is, and the new duo will look to follow a similar template. Hello everyone and a warm welcome to the first of the three T20Is between England and India. It's the clash between the top-two T20I sides. This should be exciting..

It's a World Cup year and this could be the final audition for some of the players to make it to the mega tournament. None of the players who took part in the Edgbaston Test will be available for tonight's game. So India will be without some of their experienced players, however they'll be happy to welcome back their captain - Rohit Sharma - who's fit and raring to go. Since their group-stage exit in the 2021 T20 WC, India have had a good record in the shortest format - winning 13 games and losing just two (four series wins and a drawn series).

India clinched the Paytm T20 Series Trophy between India and England on 20th March 2021 winning the series by 3-2 the last time both teams met in a T20I series.

Afeef: "Looking forward to a cracker of a series between the top 2 ranked T20I sides. Jos Buttler's first series as full-time captain and he'll be up against his former Mumbai Indians captain."

It's England versus India in the first T20I at the Ageas Bowl. It's Jos Buttler, in his first official outing as Eoin Morgan's successor, versus Rohit Sharma, freshly restored to the firing line after an untimely bout of Covid. And it's all set to get underway in just under an hour's time, at 6pm BST

Recent Venue Records--- Southampton

STATS – T20

Total matches 9

Matches won batting first 5

Matches won bowling first 4

Average 1st Inns scores 168

Average 2nd Inns scores 143

Highest total recorded 248/6 (20 Ov) by AUS vs ENG

Lowest total recorded 79/10 (14.3 Ov) by AUS vs ENG

Highest score chased 158/4 (18.5 Ov) by ENG vs AUS

Lowest score defended 162/7 (20 Ov) by ENG vs AUS

Arshdeep Singh receives his maiden India cap from Rohit Sharma.

Go India , go.

Rohit is back, and the team is looking good.