The Cricketer runs down the who, what, where, when, why, how much, which channel and how wet will it be for the first T20I between India and England
The first T20I of the five-match series between Virat Kohli and Eoin Morgan’s teams.
The first game takes place on Friday, March 12.
March 12: 1st T20I (Ahmedabad) – 7pm (IST), 1.30pm (GMT)
March 14: 2nd T20I (Ahmedabad) – 7pm (IST), 1.30pm (GMT)
March 16: 3rd T20I (Ahmedabad) – 7pm (IST), 1.30pm (GMT)
March 18: 4th T20I (Ahmedabad) – 7pm (IST), 1.30pm (GMT)
March 20: 5th T20I (Ahmedabad) – 7pm (IST), 1.30pm (GMT)
All five games will be played at the renamed Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which staged the final two Tests of the series, which was won by India.
Dafabet are offering odds of 7/10 on India winning the opening game of the series. England are at 11/10 to take an early lead.
Virat Kohli and Jos Buttler are both tipped at 12/5 to be their countries’ top run-scorer on Friday.
England are more or less at full strength as Morgan’s men look to hone their preparations ahead of October’s T20 World Cup in India.
Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali and Sam Curran all return to international cricket after serving their rest periods during the latter part of the Test series, while Jonny Bairstow, Jason Roy and Dawid Malan are also part of a brutally aggressive batting line-up.
Liam Livingstone, another member of England’s squad with an Indian Premier League deal, is part of the group, having impressed during the Big Bash. Once again, there is no place for Alex Hales, though Morgan and chief selector Ed Smith have hinted that the Nottinghamshire opener may yet have an opportunity to return to the fold.
India have recalled Rishabh Pant to their T20 squad after the wicketkeeper-batsman missed out on the white-ball series against Australia in 2020. Bhuvneshwar Kumar also returns for the first time since 2019, while T Natarajan retains his place after impressing in Australia.
There is no Jasprit Bumrah, however; the fast bowler is being rested. Debuts could be given to Rahul Tewatia, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav.
India Squad: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur
England squad: Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonathan Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, Mark Wood
Reserves: Jake Ball, Matt Parkinson
Rishabh Pant comes into the series on the back of a stunning Test century
Crowds are being allowed to watch the T20Is at the reconstructed Narendra Modi Stadium. The stadium will be operating at 50% capacity to allow social distancing to be in operation throughout the ground.
Sky Sports will broadcast the series in the United Kingdom, with the content available online via its streaming platform Sky Go.
Radio coverage of the series will be provided by TalkSPORT2.
In India, the series will be broadcast on Star Sports.
SuperSport are showing the matches in South Africa.
Fox Sports and Kayo have footage of the T20Is in Australia, which fans can following the action in New Zealand on Sky Sport 2.
Our coverage of India vs England is brought to you in association with Dafabet India. For more on Dafabet and to place a bet, click here
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