India defeated England by seven wickets in the first T20I of the five-match series at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The visitors were asked to bat first but the Jos Buttler-led side failed to make an impact in the powerplay. Pacer Arshdeep Singh dismissed Phil Salt in the opening over and Ben Duckett in his next, putting the Three Lions on the back foot immediately. Captain Buttler tried to rescue, scoring 68 runs off 44 deliveries but it wasn’t enough as England posted 132 runs in the first innings. India chased it down in 12.5 overs, courtesy of a brilliant knock from Abhishek Sharma.
Explaining the reason behind their poor outing with the bat, vice-captain Harry Brook stated that the players had difficulty reading the line and length due to the presence of a thick layer of smog. Notably, the youngster made only 17 runs off 14 deliveries while Liam Livingstone and Jacob Bethell struggled to get going in the middle order, resulting in England getting reduced to 109/8 at one stage.
Varun Chakravarthy was the star with the ball for the Men in Blue. He picked up three wickets and wreaked havoc in the middle order while Axar Patel played the perfect supporting cast, picking two. Meanwhile, Brook mentioned that picking Varun’s deliveries were relatively tough to pick as smog bothered his vision. The cricketer also prayed that the conditions would be better for the second T20I in Chennai.
“I didn't face Bishnoi but Chakravarthy is an exceptionally good bowler. He's tough to pick. I think actually with the smog the other night, it was a lot harder to pick as well. Hopefully, the air is a bit clearer here and we can see the ball a bit easier. He's an exceptional bowler and has got a lot of skills with extreme accuracy as well. Their spinners are their key threat, so we will look to put pressure on them, take them down, put as much pressure as we can on them, and hopefully they crumble from there,” Brook said in the pre-match press conference.
Meanwhile, England are set to make at least one change to their playing XI for the second T20I. Gus Atkinson, who had a rough day in Kolkata, is set to be replaced by Brydon Carse. Jamie Smith is also in the reckoning as Jacob Bethell is reported to be ill.