India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first in the opening five-match T20I series against England at the Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street. The visitors made one significant change from the squad that toured Ireland, with Varun Chakaravarthy returning after recovering from a foot injury. Teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, meanwhile, will have to wait for his international debut as India opted for an experienced playing XI that includes three specialist spinners.Speaking after the draw, Iyer said the team had moved on from the disappointing series in Ireland and was eager for a fresh start.Shreyas Iyer (Captain of India): “We will bat first. This is a great opportunity for us. My second series as captain, I am quite excited. We got what we wanted and yesterday we had an acclimatization training session. Ireland series is history. It has a decent amount of grass at the gates, so it’s hard to predict how it will play out, but our intention will remain high. We’re going with three spinners.”England captain Harry Brook admitted he would prefer to bowl first but expressed confidence in his team’s balanced line-up.Harry Brook (Captain of England): “We would have bowled first but we are happy with how things have gone. It looks like a good wicket. The mood in the camp is really good and we are excited to start the series. We have a lot of experienced players like Jos Buttler, Phil Salt and Sam Curran, who I can always rely on.”England have rested Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue following their recent participation in the Trent Bridge Test, paving the way for Luke Wood and Saqib Mahmood to feature in the series opener.
Playing XI
England: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Harry Brook (c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Saqib Mahmood, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood.India: Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (ie), Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy.
