England will lock horns against India in the first T20I at the Rose Bowl, Southampton on Thursday. Both teams will look to draw first blood in the series after the end of the thrilling Test match at Edgbaston.
The aim for both of these teams will be to prepare themselves for the T20 World Cup and thus they will be looking to make the most of this series.
Current form of India in T20Is: W W A* W W
India had won their last two matches against South Africa after losing their first two matches. Subsequently, the young Indian team won against Ireland recently. India will continue with their approach of giving chances to young players and the young guns will look to deliver the goods for the team.
Current form of England in T20Is: L W L W L
England had lost their last five-match T20I series against West Indies by 3-2. However, the Three Lions had comprehensively beaten the Netherlands in the three-match ODI series by 3-0. Jos Buttler will look to lead the team from the front and get the best out of his players.
India holds a slight advantage in the head-to-head battle.
Players to look out for: Rohit Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, and Yuzvendra Chahal will be the key players for India.
Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Jason Roy, and Tymal Mills will be the crucial players for England.
India’s squad for 1st T20I: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik
Note: A* stands for the Abandoned match.