India take on England in the first T20I of the three-match series at Green Park in Kanpur on Thursday.
The Indians will be high on confidence having already won the Test and ODI series. Under Virat Kohli, the Men in Blue have looked difficult to beat in the recent past, especially in home conditions.
But England will be no pushovers, especially after their win in the third ODI in Kolkata last Sunday. They have one of the most exciting limited overs teams in the world and will be bidding to win the T20I series to finish their tour of India on a high note.
Last year, England reached the ICC World T20 final on Indian soil which shows that the conditions will not bother them much.
DATE, TIME, VENUE INFO
Date: January 26, 2017 (Thursday)
Time: 15:00 GST, 16:30 local time (IST), 11:00 GMT
Venue: Green Park, Kanpur
WHERE TO WATCH, LIVE STREAMING INFO
TV: UAE – OSN Sports Cricket HD, India – Star Sports 1, HD 1 (English), Star Sports 3, HD 3 (Hindi), UK – Sky Sports 2 HD
Online streaming: hotstar.com, Hotstar app (in India only)
LIVE blog: Sport360 blog
TEAM NEWS, SQUAD, PREDICTED XI
INDIA SQUAD: Virat Kohli (c), MS Dhoni (wk), Mandeep Singh, KL Rahul, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Amit Mishra, Parvez Rasool.
India’s T20I squad has a much changed look compared to the one named for the ODI series against England.
The likes of Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan have been ignored while spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been rested.
It’ll be interesting to see who gets the nod to open the batting. Kohli has preferred to open in the IPL, so will he follow suit when it comes to T20 internationals?
India have three openers in KL Rahul, Mandeep Singh and Rishabh Pant and if Kohli does open, only one of them could make the XI.
In the bowling department, with India expected to play two pacers, two spinners and Hardik Pandya, either Ashish Nehra or Bhuvneshwar Kumar might have to warm the bench.
PREDICTED INDIA XI: Pant, Rahul, Kohli (c), Yuvraj, Dhoni (wk), Raina, Pandya, Mishra, Nehra, Chahal, Bumrah.
ENGLAND SQUAD: Eoin Morgan (c), Jason Roy, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Jake Ball, Chris Jordan, David Willey, Liam Plunkett, Tymal Mills.
England were dealt a major blow when opening batsman Alex Hales was ruled out of the series due to a hand injury in the second ODI last week. In-form batsman Jonny Bairstow was named as his replacement in the squad.
In Hales’ absence, expect Sam Billings to open the innings alongside Jason Roy.
In the bowling department, will England go in with just one spinner or will they bring in Adil Rashid to accompany Mooen Ali?
PREDICTED ENGLAND XI: Roy, Billings, Root, Morgan (c), Buttler, Stokes, Ali, Rashid, Jordan, Mills, Ball.
FORM
(Last five matches – with latest match first)
INDIA: NR L W W L
ENGLAND: L W L W W
MATCH PREDICTION
India to win.
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