India vs England 1st T20: Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium will host the first T20 between India and England. Ahead of the first of the five T20I’s, Virat Kohli has cleared the air about who are going to be India’s openers for the upcoming game. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma will start as openers for India as reveled by Kohli on Thursday. India has three opening batsman options including Rahul, Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, but the Captain has opted to go without Dhawan. "KL and Rohit have been consistent performers. Those two will start," Kohli said in a virtual press conference.
"This time you will see guys a bit more free, a bit more expressive. We didn't have enough depth in the batting before, but I see us being much more positive and free,” said the captain. He said this as team India now has batting depth in the form of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan who have been in good T20 form off late.
This series would be a good preparation for the upcoming T20 World Cup and the captain knows it. But he feels that England has a great chance of winning the tournament. "They are the No. 1 side in the world. England will be favorites to win the T20 World Cup."
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar is also back in the side after 2019 and is set to make a comeback. However, it wasn’t clear if the bowler would be in the playing eleven for India. “He is shaping up really well. He has come back. He is fit. He has worked really well to get back to 100 per cent fitness. He is a smart operator with the ball and he continues to bring that experience to the field,” Kohli said about Bhuvaneshwar.
India vs England T20 will be played from 7 pm on 12 March 2021. The live streaming will be available on Disney+Hotstar.
India Squad: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul(w), Virat Kohli(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Axar Patel, Shikhar Dhawan, Deepak Chahar, Shreyas Iyer, Rahul Tewatia, T Natarajan, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Chahar
England Squad: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler(w), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan(c), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Sam Billings, Reece Topley, Mark Wood, Tom Curran, Liam Livingstone