India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first in the opening five-match T20I against England at the Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street. The visitors make a big change to the squad that toured Ireland, with Varun Chakaravarthy returning after recovering from a foot injury. Young batsman Vaibhav Sooryavanshi will have to wait to make his international debut as India have selected a playing XI featuring three veteran pacers.Speaking after the toss, Iyer said the team had moved on from Ireland’s disappointing streak and wanted to start anew.Shreyas Iyer (Indian captain): “We will beat first. It is a good opportunity for us. My second series as captain, very happy. We got what we wanted and had a practice session yesterday to get used to it. Ireland’s list is history. There is a lot of grass on the wicket, so it is difficult to predict how it will play, but our aim will remain high. We are going with three spinners. “England captain Harry Brook admitted he would have preferred to play football first but expressed his confidence in his side’s performance.Harry Brook (England captain): “We should have bowled first, but we are happy with the way things have gone. It looks like a good wicket. The atmosphere in the camp is very good and we are excited for the game to start. We have experienced players like Jos Buttler, Phil Salt and Sam Curran, who I can always rely on.”England have rested Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue after their recent participation in the Trent Bridge Test, paving the way for Luke Wood and Saqib Mahmood to feature in the opening series.
Playing XIs
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.