India bat first with three spinners, keep Sooryavanshi waiting in first T20I against England

Meanwhile, England brought Saqib Mahmood and Luke Wood into their side, replacing Jofra Archer and Jamie Overton from the side they fielded in the T20 World Cup semi-final

Toss India chose to bat first vs England

The wait for Vaibhav Sooryavanshi goes on. Even after the shock 2-0 defeat to Ireland, India have not pulled the chord on their 15-year old phenom.

They did, however, win the toss for the first T20I against England, opting to bat first in Chester-le-Street. Shreyas Iyer called correctly and, on a surface with a decent grass covering, has opted to go in with three spinners. Varun Chakaravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi will combine with Axar Patel as the allrounder.

Defeats in Ireland brought call for change from the T20 world champions, with a couple of first-ball ducks from opener Sanju Samson potentially opening door for Sooryavanshi. However, the 31-year old retains his spot for this first meeting with England.

England themselves are nursing seismic losses. A 2-1 Test series defeat to New Zealand was accompanied by the loss of Ben Stokes as Test captain and an international cricketer. Stokes hasn't played limited overs cricket in close to three years, but it feels prescient that he took England over the line in the 2022 World Cup final in his last T20I appearance.

The man who might take on the Test mantle, Harry Brook, is back in charge. The one who may be groomed for similar leadership roles, Jacob Bethell, is also in action following a quick turnaround from the Tests. Both, along with head coach Brendon McCullum, made the journey up from Nottingham to Durham on Tuesday morning, having hit a few white balls on the final day at Trent Bridge.

Switching formats in such a short space of time won't be easy for England. But it will help that they return to a line-up far more settled in their T20I kit than the one in whites.

There are only two changes from the team that lost to India in the T20 World Cup semi-final, with Saqib Mahmood and Luke Wood replacing Jofra Archer (rested) and Jamie Overton (injured).

England XI: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler, 3 Harry Brook (capt), 4 Jacob Bethell, 5 Tom Banton, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Luke Wood, 11 Saqib Mahmood

India XI: 1 Sanju Samson, 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt.), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Harshit Rana, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Varun Chakravarthy