Chester-le-Street, July 1 (IANS) India have won the toss and elected to bat first against England in the T20I series opener at the Riverside Ground on Wednesday. India will be aiming to get a winning start in England after suffering a shocking 2-0 series loss to Ireland.

After winning the toss, India captain Shreyas Iyer said they are going with three spinners, with wrist-spinner Varun Chakaravarthy returning after missing the matches against Ireland due to recovery from a foot injury. India are playing three spinners in Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi and Chakaravarthy, while fielding just two seamers in Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh with Shivam Dube being the sixth bowler.

“Ireland is history. It’s a new series, five games, everything to play for. Certainly, this is a great opportunity for us. This is actually my second series as a captain. So, pretty much excited. We got what we wanted. We got a session of practice over here yesterday, pretty much acclimatized to the surroundings as well. So, looking forward for an exciting one.

“It’s absolutely fine. To be honest, Ireland series is history. We’ve got to learn a lot from that series. And coming over here, we know how England has been playing their cricket. So, definitely slightly upbeat, know their strengths and weaknesses, so looking forward to have a great one.”

On his assessment of the pitch, Iyer said, “There’s pretty decent amount of grass on the wicket. We practiced yesterday as well on the same one. So, can’t actually predict how the wicket’s going to play, but definitely the intent is going to be high.”

England skipper Harry Brook said he was happy with bowling first, as they switch from Test series defeat to New Zealand. “The mood’s really good. We’re really looking forward to this series starting against a very strong Indian side, and, it’s good to be back with the lads. That’s just part of cricket.

“You’ve just got to get ready for the next series as quickly as you possibly can, and try and make it as easy as you can for yourself. There’s a lot of experienced players, and that’s quite nice for me to be able to lean on them in the middle of the game as well. Having the likes of Jos Buttler and Phil Salt, Sam Curran out in the middle as well to lean on when I need some help, is really helpful.”

Playing XIs:

England: Philip Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Harry Brook (captain), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Saqib Mahmood, Adil Rashid, and Luke Wood

India: Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, and Varun Chakaravarthy

–IANS

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