IND vs ENG 1st T20I Dream11 prediction: Best fantasy picks for India vs England match in Kolkata
India will take on England in the first T20I of the five-match series at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Suryakumar Yadav and Jos Buttler, the two tentpole names in modern white-ball cricket, will lead teams filled with explosive batters through the order and pacy bowling attacks.
by Edited By: Anshul Gupta · India TVIf it lives up to its billing, the five-match India vs England T20 series could be a battle of two goliaths. The two teams are almost arranged in a similar manner with a left-hander and a wicketkeeper at the top, followed by a T20 superstar as captain, another left-hander, two outstanding right-handed hitters and again a finisher with a couple of all-rounders and pacy bowling attacks, with one quality spinner.
Both teams are filled with strokemakers, who can punish any bowling line-up into submission on their day and provided the wickets are good for batting, it will be a watchable series for sure, which the new-white ball coach for the visitors, Brendon McCullum has already promised.
The series begins in Kolkata. A venue, very dear to the coaches of the two teams, having played and being on the support staff for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, has transformed into a skiddy fast surface, with short boundaries and a lot of runs. For India, the batting line-up runs up to No 8 with Arshdeep Singh to follow, while England too go deep with the likes of Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson and Jofra Archer as part of the lower order.
England have already named their playing XI. India's mostly picks itself unless a surprise. Both India and England would want to land the first blow as it is a long series and early momentum would not harm either of the sides. India being the hosts, should fancy their chances but this England team will fight with all their might and will prove to be the biggest test for the new T20 side, which has had a good run in the three series post the T20 World Cup.
My Dream11 team for IND vs ENG 1st T20I
Jos Buttler, Phil Salt, Sanju Samson (vc), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Harry Brook, Jamie Overton, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy (c), Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid
Playing XIs
India (probable): Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel (vc), Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami
England: Ben Duckett, Philip Salt (wk), Jos Buttler(c), Harry Brook (vc), Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood