India v England: first men’s T20 cricket international – live | Twenty20
Key events
England named their team early, as is Baz’s wont. It’s seriously exciting – possibly a bit too exciting, because on a bad day that pace attack will go the distance.
India’s T20 squad is radically different to the names selected for the one-dayers, when the more storied names – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah – return. But depth is rarely an issue here and Sharma and Kohli have been replaced with little trouble following their T20 retirements after the World Cup win last year in the Caribbean.
A fresh top three of Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma have six T20 international centuries between them in that period. They may even welcome the extra English pace at Eden Gardens, which hosted the highest successful T20 run chase last April, a Jonny Bairstow hundred helping Punjab Kings to score 262 with eight wickets to spare against Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.
India have won 13 out of 15 since lifting the trophy in Barbados, done with seven totals north of 200, including a staggering 297 for six in a 133-run win against Bangladesh in October. Those numbers are daunting, surely even for someone as relentlessly optimistic as McCullum.
Preamble
Buckle up, strap in, choose your own metaphor. Things are about to get lively. Three years ago, Brendon McCullum infused a woebegone England Test team with the spirit of white-ball cricket. Now he’s taking charge of the actual white-ball team. As spin-offs go, this could be anything from Frasier to Baywatch Nights. The only guarantee is that it won’t be dull.
This is the first of eight matches on England’s short tour of India: five T20s, three ODIs. The match begins at 1.30pm GMT, 7pm in Kolkata.
