Can India get back to winning ways?
While their red ball form might have been iffy in the recent past, there’s no questioning India’s white-ball form, with India currently serving as the defending T20I World Cup champions.
The Men in Blue will be hosting England as part of a lengthy white-ball tour ahead of an important white-ball season ahead. The action kicks off with the T20I series and here’s our prediction for the first T20I between India and England.
India vs England 1st T20I | England Tour of India 2025 | 19:00 IST, January 22, 2025
Post the T20 World Cup 2024, the Indian T20I squad officially got its transition period going as with the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, the team management started building a squad for the future with Suryakumar Yadav taking over the reins from Rohit Sharma, as captain.
Yadav leads a relatively young squad in the T20I series against England with the explosive and talented Abhishek Sharma at the top of the order with the veteran Sanju Samson. Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh and Nitish Kumar Reddy make up a long batting lineup with Pandya and Reddy serving as like-for-like all-rounders. The Indian squad has a strong spin unit with the likes of Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi and Axar Patel, with Sundar and Patel also being more than handy with the bat as well.
Mohammed Shami returns to the Indian team after a long period out due to a knee injury and Shami will lead the pace attack with Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana rounding out the seam bowling option.
The visitors on the other hand, have Jos Buttler leading the 2022 T20 World Cup champions and Buttler, like his counterpart, has a relatively young squad at his disposal. England’s batting lineup is led by Buttler and his explosive and dynamic partner, Phil Salt with Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell and Liam Livingstone being the core of the batting unit. The English team have a host of all-rounders, with Bethell, Brydon Carse, Livingstone, Jamie Overton and Rehan Ahmed all able to roll over their arm and chip in with runs more than regularly.
Jofra Archer leads the pace attack with Mark Wood and Gus Atkinson while Carse and Overton are handy second acts. The experienced Adil Rashid and Rehan Ahmed would also be playing a key role, especially given the Indian team’s recent struggles against spin.
The first T20I will be taking place at the iconic Eden Gardens, known for its high scoring games in the recent past. While the strip will have something for the seamers early on, expect a lot of runs and the hosts start as favourites in a series which should be neck-and-neck throughout.
Fantasy XI: Abhishek Sharma, Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Suryakumar Yadav, Harry Brook, Tilak Vama, Liam Livingstone, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer,
Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Winners Prediction: India
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