India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first in the opening T20I of the five-match series against England at the Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street. The visitors have made one notable change from the team 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 have opted for an experienced playing XI with three specialist spinners.Speaking after the toss, Iyer said the team had moved on from the disappointing Ireland series and was eager to make a fresh start.Shreyas Iyer (India captain): “We have beaten before. It is a great opportunity for us. My second series as captain, quite excited. I got what we wanted and had a practice session yesterday to acclimatize. The Ireland series is history. There is a decent amount of grass on the wicket, so it is difficult to predict how it will play out, but our intention remains high. We’re going with three spinners.”England captain Harry Brook admitted he would have preferred to bowl first but expressed confidence in his team’s balanced line-up.Harry Brook (England captain): “We should have bowled early but we are happy with the way things have gone. It looks like a good wicket. The mood in the field is really good and we are excited to get the series going. 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 involvement 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 (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy.