India vs England: How England might line up for the first T20I
England are playing the most explosive white-ball cricket in the world right now. They have attacking batsmen, reliable all-rounders, and wicket-taking bowlers, all essential components of a successful white-ball team.
However, due to the wide variety of options available at their disposal, the management is likely to have more than a few selection headaches, especially in the batting department given how much all of their batsmen enjoyed playing in the series against Australia.
This slideshow looks at the probable 11 of the English team for the first T20 against India.
Openers: Jos Buttler and Jason Roy
Paul Farbrace, England's coach for this series, has confirmed that Jos Buttler, given the sublime touch that he is in at the moment, will open the batting. He has played and dominated the Indian bowlers in this year's edition of the IPL and that will give Buttler a lot of confidence, and will also make him an invaluable asset to have at the top of the order. However, while he may be able to perform against India's seam bowlers, the real challenge for him - and the entire England batting line-up - will be facing India's wrist-spinners who are wreaking havoc in all parts of the world.
Jason Roy, too, has been in good form of late, scoring two centuries in the ODI series against Australia. While he did struggle in the IPL in Indian conditions, the conditions in England could not be better for a batsman like him at the moment, and he will be looking to capitalise on that. How he plays against Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal will be interesting to see as well.
Even though the English conditions may not necessarily be in the spinners' favour, they have shown that they have the capability and the skills to perform in unfavourable conditions, such as in South Africa, and more recently, in Ireland. Conversely, these two batsmen will go hard at the wrist-spinners, so it will also be interesting to see how they can cope up with that.