India vs England 2021, 1st T20I: Match Preview And Prediction

The hosts India and the visitors England will compete with each other on Friday (12th March) evening during the opening game of the five-match T20I series at Narendra Modi Stadium (Motera, Ahmedabad).

Both teams will play their first T20I match in 2021 during this upcoming T20I series opener. Before this T20I series, they met in the four-match Test series where the hosts India won that series by the 3-1 margin and qualify for the final of the inaugural ICC World Test Championship.

India vs England 2021, 1st T20I: Match Preview

India

Virat Kohli-led Indian team are ready to challenge one of the strongest T20I teams in the present time. As they are hosting this T20I series, they have high confidence. They also have to prove freshly their consistency in this shorter format. Meanwhile, it will be their first limited-overs match in this calendar year.

While some of the Indian cricketers were recently busy in the Test cricket against this English side, some of the players were busy in the domestic cricket as they featured in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and/or Vijay Hazare Trophy.

The pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar have recently played some domestic matches after recovering from their respective injuries. This T20I series is going to be very crucial for them too as it is a challenging time for the Indian pacers due to the high competition.

Full Squad

Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy (doubtful for the entire series), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Rahul Tewatia, T Natarajan (doubtful for the first T20I), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.

England

During this T20I series opener, the visitors England will also play their first limited-overs match in 2021. Captain Eoin Morgan and his boys are ready to challenge one of the strongest home T20I sides. As India will also host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 in the late of this year, this T20I series will be a huge experience for the 2010 ICC World T20 Champions.

For this T20I series, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have named a strong T20I squad, where most of their regular T20I players are present. Everyone will look at this T20I series to secure their spot for the forthcoming T20 World Cup.

Liam Livingstone is their irregular face in this T20I side, who played only two T20Is in 2017. Recently, in the T20 Blast 2020 and Big Bash League 2020/21, he played very roles and that too as an all-rounder.

Full Squad

Eoin Morgan (C), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), Tom Curran, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, Mark Wood

India vs England 2021, 1st T20I: Match Prediction

Both India and England are very strong T20I sides at the present time. Though the Men in Blue are always a stronger side at home, this series is expectedly going to be very competitive.