Wood returns, Atkinson over Mahmood

The pace duo of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer will return to the T20I setup at the Eden Gardens as England begin their white-ball tour of India. This will be Wood's first T20I after the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean. Archer, meanwhile, was part of the squad that toured the West Indies in November last year.

The return of the pace spearheads mean England have left out Saqib Mahmood for the first game. Mahmood was the biggest positive of the last T20I series in the West Indies for England, picking up nine wickets in four innings at an economy rate of 6.33. He will now have to bide his time for a slot in the XI.

Two other seam bowlers feature in the lineup Brendon McCullum announced at the press conference in Kolkata today (January 21) – Gus Atkinson and Jamie Overton. Atkinson last played a T20I in December 2023, but has enjoyed success in the Test arena last year. Overton, meanwhile debuted in the shortest format against Australia last year, but hasn't had much to do with bat or ball so far. Nevertheless, with a 1,500-run cut-off, he has the fifth-best strike rate in all T20 cricket.

Duckett makes T20I comeback

In the batting department, Ben Duckett makes a T20I return after a year as England seemed to have moved on from the struggling Will Jacks. This also implies that Jos Buttler will most probably continue in his new role at No.3. McCullum had also confirmed yesterday (January 20) that Buttler will not don the gloves.

The first T20I begins at 7 pm local time on Wednesday.

England XI for first T20I vs India

Phil Salt (wk), Ben Duckett, Jos Buttler (c), Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (vc), Liam Livingstone, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood.

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