India vs England 2025, 1st T20I: Toss result and playing 11s for today’s match, umpires list, and pitch report

Team India are taking on England at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Wednesday, January 22 in the first T20I of the five-match series. India are the defending world champions, while England won the T20 World Cup in 2022.

The hosts will be led by Suryakumar Yadav, who made a belated entry into international cricket, but has established himself as one of the most dangerous batters in T20Is. Tilak Varma and Sanju Samson were exceptional in South Africa, but Abhishek Sharma needs a big score. On the bowling front, eyes will be on Mohammed Shami, who is returning from injury.

England will be led by Jos Buttler, but coach Brendon McCullum had confirmed in the build-up to the series that Phil Salt would be keeping wickets. The visitors have several match winners Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jofra Archer, and Adil Rashid. Despite their brilliant recent record in T20Is, India are unlikely to have it easy in the five-match series.

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Today's IND vs ENG toss result

India have won the toss and have opted to bowl first. Suryakumar said:

“The wicket looks a little sticky. We have practiced here for the last couple of days. The dew should set in later on.”

The Men in Blue have left out Shami, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, and Dhruv Jurel from their playing XI.

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IND vs ENG - Today's match playing XIs

India: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakravarthy.

England: Ben Duckett, Philip Salt (w), Jos Buttler (c), Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Adil Rashid.

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Today's IND vs ENG pitch report

According to Nick Knight, there's a nice tinge of green. He reckons that it won't do a lot, but it will do enough and will carry through well too. Knight points out that England have taller bowlers so will get something more out of this surface. Deep Dasgupta adds that lots of fours and sixes are likely to be on offer. He states that it looks a little drier, but the color will change and will get darker owing to the dew factor.

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Today's IND vs ENG match complete players list

India squad: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Dhruv Jurel, Harshit Rana

England squad: Jos Buttler (c), Philip Salt (wk), Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Jamie Smith, Rehan Ahmed, Saqib Mahmood, Brydon Carse

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IND vs ENG - Today's match umpires

Umpires: Jayaraman Madanagopal, Nitin Menon

Third umpire: KN Ananthapadmanabhan

Match Referee: Javagal Srinath