India opt to bat in first T20I against England; Varun Chakaravarthy returns, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi awaits debut | Cricket News
India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first in the first T20I of the five-match series against England at the Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street. The visitors made one notable change from the visiting Ireland squad, with Varun Chakaravarthy returning from a foot injury. Meanwhile, teenage batting star Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will have to wait for his international debut as India have opted for an experienced line-up of three specialist spinners.Iyer said after the game that the team had moved on from a disappointing Ireland series and were eager for a fresh start.Shreyas Iyer (Captain of Team India): “We bat first. It’s a great opportunity for us. My second series as captain, very excited. Got what we wanted and practiced yesterday to get acclimated. The Ireland series is history. There was quite a bit of grass on the wicket so it was hard to predict how the game would go but our intentions were still high. We’re going to bring three spinners. “England captain Harry Brooke admitted he would prefer to bowl first but expressed confidence in his side’s balanced line-up.Harry Brooke (England captain): “We would have bowled first but we are happy with how things went. It looked like a good wicket. The atmosphere in the camp has been great 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 rested Jofra Archer and Josh Tonge after the recent Test at Trent Bridge, paving the way for Luke Wood and Saqib Mahmood to feature in the series opener.
Hit XI
England: Phil Salt, Jos Butler (wk), Harry Brooke (c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Saqib Mahmood, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood.India: Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy.
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