After a nail-biting fifth Test, both England and India will shift their focus to the T20I series, with an ultimate aim of preparing in the best possible manner for the T20 World Cup, which will take place later in the year in Australia. England will begin a new chapter in their limited-overs cricket as Jos Buttler will begin his captaincy tenure after the retirement of Eoin Morgan.
On the other hand, India is expected to continue with their strategy of giving opportunities to youngsters, who had impressed in the Tata IPL 2022. The Chetan Sharma-led selection panel has named two T20I squads and it will be interesting to note the playing combination in the first game.
Rohit Sharma has returned back to the team after recovering from Covid-19. The Indian captain will look to get the best out of his players and also get back into form as he could only score 268 runs in 14 matches for Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
India had recently made a solid comeback against South Africa in the home series and then went on to beat Ireland in the two-match T20I series. The squad also played two warm-up matches against Derbyshire and Northamptonshire, which they won.
Meanwhile, Jos Buttler has said that England will continue to play in an aggressive manner and he wants to follow in the footsteps of Eoin Morgan. England must be high on confidence after winning the fifth Test match and they will look to carry the same form in the white-ball series, even though it is almost a different squad.
England had lost their last T20I series against West Indies but they were too strong against the Netherlands in the ODI series.
Date and Time: 7th July, 10:30 PM IST.
Venue: Rose Bowl, Southampton.
Predicted XI for England: Jos Buttler (c&wk), Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Phil Salt, Harry Brook, Sam Curran/David Willey, Richard Gleeson, Chris Jordan/Reece Topley/Tymal Mills, Matthew Parkinson.
Predicted XI for India: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh/Avesh Khan/Umran Malik, Yuzvendra Chahal.
