England named their team early, as is Baz’s wont. It’s seriously exciting – possibly a bit too exciting, because on a bad day that pace attack will go the distance.
Salt (wk), Duckett, Buttler (c), Brook, Livingstone, Bethell, J Overton, Atkinson, Archer, Rashid, Wood.
India’s T20 squad is radically different to the names selected for the one-dayers, when the more storied names – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah – return. But depth is rarely an issue here and Sharma and Kohli have been replaced with little trouble following their T20 retirements after the World Cup win last year in the Caribbean.
A fresh top three of Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma have six T20 international centuries between them in that period. They may even welcome the extra English pace at Eden Gardens, which hosted the highest successful T20 run chase last April, a Jonny Bairstow hundred helping Punjab Kings to score 262 with eight wickets to spare against Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.
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