Key events
8th over: England 65-4 (Buttler 42, Bethell 0) Chakaravathy doesn’t turn the ball extravagantly, far from it, but his variations are so subtle and he is always threatening the stumps.
WICKET! England 65-4 (Livingstone b Chakaravarthy 0)
Two wickets in three balls! Liam Livingstone is cleaned up by another beautiful googly that zips through the gate to hit leg stump. England are in bother, mainly because of some quite brilliant bowling from Arshdeep and Chakaravarthy.
WICKET! England 65-3 (Brook b Chakaravarthy 17)
Beautiful bowling! Harry Brook looked uncertain against Chakaravarthy throughout his short innings. He played one lovely shot, a back cut for four, but was cleaned up next ball by a superb googly. That’s an emphatic triumph for Chakaravarthy.
7th over: England 61-2 (Buttler 42, Brook 13) Axar Patel’s first over disappears for 15. Harry Brook, no longer all over the show, dances down to drive gloriously over extra cover for six. Buttler plays an even better shot later in the over, pulling a length ball over midwicket for six more. He’s playing beautifully and has 42 from 24 balls.
“This England side feels oddly settled,” says Guy Hornsby. “Yes, there’s new kid on the block, Jacob Bethell, and Jamie Overton and Gus Atkinson haven’t played tons of white-ball Internationals, but they’re certainly not new to the England setup. Even in the wider squad, it feels we have a good group to pick from and plenty in reserve. This isn’t to say we won’t be beaten by India at home, but we look stronger on paper against a team much more in transition. You can ping this back at me when we’re out for 97, of course.”
I don’t fancy their chances in this series. Long term, though, we could be in for loads of fun.
6th over: England 46-2 (Buttler 34, Brook 6) Time for spin. First up, the late-blooming legspinner Varun Chakaravarthy.
Brook is all over the show at the start of the innings. He misses a sweep, falls over and is almost bowled round his legs. A hack at the next ball flies past leg stump for four. Buttler then wallops an off drive that is very well stopped at long off.
5th over: England 38-2 (Buttler 31, Brook 1) Arshdeep is bowling so well that Suryakumar is giving him a third over. Buttler tries to pull and ends up toe-ending a single through the covers. Later in the over he takes a risky single to mid-off and is relieved to see a misfield from SKY.
Brook shapes to pull, realises he’s probably going the way of Phil Salt and aborts the shot. He charges the next ball, has a wild yahoo and doesn’t make contact. Or does he? Arshdeep thinks there was a thin edge and India have reviewed for caught behind.
Erm, it’s a dreadful review; Brook was nowhere near it. That’s the only thing Arshdeep has done wrong in a mighty spell of 3-0-10-2.
“I have no problems with your choice of descriptions of some very fine players – but please, please don’t ever go with the ubiquitous ‘stellar’,” says Brian Withington. “I don’t fully understand my aversion but it is truly visceral. I first heard it used on the BBC Open golf coverage a while back and it jarred horribly then – now it grates like the proverbial nails down a chalkboard.”
Does that mean you can’t partake in menages a trois because of the word association?
4th over: England 35-2 (Buttler 29, Brook 0) Buttler clips Hardik through square leg for successive boundaries. Then he pushes a slower ball just short of the bowler, who collects and throws at the stumps. Buttler has to do the splits to ensure he’s in his crease and then falls over. The throw missed anyway.
England will want Buttler out there for as long as possible because he looks in great touch. He drags a short ball to the midwicket boundary then touches a loose delivery to fine leg for his fourth four of the over. Buttler has 29 from 16 balls.
“The mere mention of pan-generational talent Jasprit Bumrah reminded me of his current status as my very favourite opposition player,” says Tom Hopkins. “I find the man love is never stronger than for someone who you’ll only ever see as a neutral putting the hurt on your team. I was trying to work out my all-time, pan-sport number one in that respect. Virat was high on the list during his duels with Jimmy, going a bit further back Steve Waugh. Hang on, it’s obviously Gheorghe Hagi, isn’t it? Well always have USA ‘94.”
Does Richie Aprile count?
3rd over: England 17-2 (Buttler 12, Brook 0) Harry Brook is beaten by his first ball. Arshdeep is bowling majestically and has figures of 2-0-7-2.
WICKET! England 17-2 (Duckett c Rinku b Arshdeep 4)
Ben Duckett won’t be facing any more balls. He hit one boundary, an audacious reverse flick over short third, but sliced the next delivery – a nice outswinger from Arshdeep – high in the air. Rinku Singh ran back from cover to take a beautifully judged catch.
2nd over: England 12-1 (Duckett 0, Buttler 11) After seeing that first over, England will be relieved Mohammed Shami isn’t playing. In his absence the new ball is taken by Hardik Pandya. Buttler smacks his second ball down the ground for four and slices the fifth deliberately over backward point for another. A single allows him to keep strike. Ben Duckett hasn’t faced a ball yet.
“Speaking of generational talents,” says Kim Thonger, “how many England Test cricketers in the last 100 years can match what Tuffers has achieved with ball, bat, fag and beer can. OK, not with bat, and not all the time with ball. But still, with fag and beer can, not many.”
1st over: England 3-1 (Duckett 0, Buttler 2) A misfield allows Buttler to get off the mark with a couple. It was bounce that did for Salt but Arsheep got some extravagant sideways movement throughout the over. An outstanding start.
WICKET! England 0-1 (Salt c Samson b Arshdeep 0)
A tremendous start to the Bazball Nights era: Phil Salt has gone for a third-ball duck. He was surprised by some sharp bounce from Arshdeep, got in a horrible position and top-edged the simplest of catches to Sanju Samson. That was a pretty nasty delivery to face early on in any format, never mind when you are looking to attack.
The left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh, an outstanding bowler in this format, will take the first over.
Phil Salt and Ben Duckett are ready to go. It’s time for episode one of the ECB’s new spin-off, Bazball Nights.
In other news, India are without multi-generational multi-format talent Jasprit Bumrah because of injury. In fact only four of today’s XI started the T20 World Cup final last year: SKY, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh. But India’s talent pool is among the deepest in cricket history (I was going to say the deepest and then I remembered the Australia A batting line-up of 1994-95), so don’t go betting the farm on England.
Pre-match reading
Tanya Aldred is a genius. You know it, I know it. This is the latest bit of proof.
“Hi Rob, looking forward to this,” says Luke Dealtry. “Of Luke Littler’s triumph, I think you wrote that he is a “multi-generational talent”. I’ve been wondering if this is mere hyperbole inflation or something worth exploring. Which cricketers are multi-generational as opposed to generational? Perhaps Don Bradman is the only ‘all-generational talent’ in sport. Please expand.”
Look, we live in a world where multiple Goats can apparently co-exist; I’m just trying to survive out there!
As with the phrase “world class”, I don’t really know the precise definition of “generational talent”. How can Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham both be generational talents? Doesn’t that just mean they’re really good?
It might, just might, be a load of pompous nonsense. And by using the phrase “multi-generational talent”, I might be the most pompous eejit of all. I always wanted to be the best in the world at something.
Team news
The great Mohammed Shami – who hasn’t played for India since the 2023 ODI World Cup final because of injury – was expected to return but he hasn’t maded the cut. England have gone with pace; India have three frontline spinners in Axar Patel, Varun Chakaravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi.
India Abishek, Samson (wk), Tilak, Suryakumar (c), Hardik, Rinku, Reddy, Axar, Bishnoi, Varun, Ashdeep.
England Salt (wk), Duckett, Buttler (c), Brook, Livingstone, Bethell, J Overton, Atkinson, Archer, Rashid, Wood.
India win the toss and bowl
The Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav says the wicket looks a bit sticky. The dew should help the ball skid on when India bat. Jos Buttler would also have fielded first.
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.
Taha Hashim’s preview
There are so many brilliant young cricket writers and broadcasters around, and Taha is literally sitting at the top table.
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.
India have won 13 out of 15 since lifting the trophy in Barbados, done with seven totals north of 200, including a staggering 297 for six in a 133-run win against Bangladesh in October. Those numbers are daunting, surely even for someone as relentlessly optimistic as McCullum.
Preamble
Buckle up, strap in, choose your own metaphor. Things are about to get lively. Three years ago, Brendon McCullum infused a woebegone England Test team with the spirit of white-ball cricket. Now he’s taking charge of the actual white-ball team. As spin-offs go, this could be anything from Frasier to Baywatch Nights. The only guarantee is that it won’t be dull.
This is the first of eight matches on England’s short tour of India: five T20s, three ODIs. The match begins at 1.30pm GMT, 7pm in Kolkata.
