India begin their nearly two and a half month-long tour of England on Tuesday when they take on the hosts in the first of three T20s at Old Trafford in Manchester.
Virat Kohli’s men are fresh from a 2-0 series win in the format over Ireland and will be looking to make a winning start against the in-form hosts. The Indian side has seen a couple of changes in the lead-up to the series with the injured Jasprit Bumrah and Washington Sundar being replaced by Deepak Chahar and Krunal Pandya respectively.
Bumrah’s injury opens the door for Umesh Yadav to stake his claim for a starting role. Umesh was seen hard at work at the nets along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar on Tuesday.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer is coming into the series after a fine IPL campaign where he bowled some fiery spells. While he is expected to replace Bumrah in the line-up on Tuesday, there could be plenty of shuffling in India’s middle-order. With Shikhar Shawan and Rohit Sharma near unshakable from the opening slot, the in-form KL Rahul is expected to feature in the middle-order.
The Karnataka batsman had a splendid IPL with the bat for Kings XI Punjab and although he naturally plays as an opener, he has been made to bat in the middle-order for India.
Suresh Raina was in decent form in the Ireland series, which means Dinesh Karthik could miss out on the playing XI once again despite his impressive showing in the Nidahas T20 tri-series earlier this year.
It will be all the more unlucky for Karthik given that he did not get an opportunity to bat during the second T20 against Ireland despite being named in the playing XI. However, with Kohli’s comments about testing various middle-order combinations during the tour, the 33-year-old should get his chance.
Kohli will definitely try to restrict England’s batsmen through the wrist-spin pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Hardik Pandya will once again hold the all-rounder’s slot.
INDIA LIKELY XI
Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal.