India elected to bat in 1st T20I against England; Varun Chakravarthy returns, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi awaits debut

Varun Chakravarthy (Getty Images) India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first in the opening T20I of the five-match series against England at the Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street. The visitors made one notable change to the line-up that toured Ireland, with Varun Chakaravarthy returning after recovering from a leg injury. Teenage batting sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, meanwhile, will have to wait for his international debut as India opted for an experienced playing XI with three specialist spinners.Speaking after the draw, Iyer said the team had moved on from the disappointing Ireland series and was eager to start anew.Shreyas Iyer (Captain of India): “We bat first. It’s a great opportunity for us. My second series as captain, quite excited. We got what we wanted and we had training yesterday to acclimatise. The Irish series is history. There’s a fair amount of grass on the wicket so it’s hard to predict how it will play out, but our intention will remain high. We’re going with three spinners.”England captain Harry Brook admitted he would have preferred to bowl first but expressed confidence in his team’s balanced line-up.Harry Brook (England captain): “We would have bowled first but we are happy with how things have gone. It looks like a good wicket. The mood in the camp is really good and we are excited to get the series going. We have a lot of experienced players like Jos Buttler, Phil Salt and Sam Curran who I can always rely on.”England rested Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue following their recent involvement in the Trent Bridge Test, paving the way for Luke Wood and Saqib Mahmood to feature in the series opener.

Playing XI

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.