The first T20 match between India and England is to be played today (July 1) at the Riverside Ground, Chester Lee Street. England has announced its playing XI for the opener of this 5-match T20 series. Now all eyes are on Team India. There is pressure on captain Shreyas Iyer and head coach Gautam Gambhir to field Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
The team management did not field this young sensation in the two-match T20 series against Ireland. Iyer-Gambhir have been severely criticized after the Indian team’s embarrassing 0-2 defeat in that series. People believed that what did the team achieve by not playing Vaibhav?
15 year old Vaibhav has been on the lips of fans since the beginning of this year. He made Team India the champion by playing a historic inning of 175 runs in 80 balls in the final of the Under-19 World Cup. After this, Vaibhav entered the Indian team in IPL 2026, scoring 776 runs at a strike rate of 237.30. Vaibhav is recently coming back after playing a explosive inning of 94 runs in 29 balls in the final of the ODI tri-series against Sri Lanka-A, due to which there is a strong demand to give him a chance to debut in international cricket.
Shreyas has clearly said in the press conference before the match that the players who win the T20 World Cup will be supported. That means Vaibhav may have to wait. However, it is also believed that the team management can give a surprise. In such a situation, let us know who may have to go out due to Vaibhav’s entry into the playing XI.
Left-handed explosive batsman Vaibhav opens the innings. To give them a chance, the opening pair of Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma will have to be broken. Vaibhav can open with Abhishek. Whereas Sanju can be pushed to number-3. By doing this, Ishan Kishan, who has confirmed his place at number three, will have to go out. It is not easy to drop Sanju, because if he is kept out, all the top-3 will be left-handed batsmen and this will increase the problems of Team India, as it happened in the T20 World Cup.
Another option is that Vaibhav can be included by keeping Abhishek Sharma out. With this, Vaibhav will get a chance to open with Sanju and Ishaan can easily play at number 3. If Abhishek is dropped, there will be no need for much tinkering with the batting order.
England’s playing XI: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Harry Brook (captain), Jacob Bethel, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Saqib Mahmood, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood.
India’s probable playing XI: Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma/Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Verma, Suryansh Shedge, Shivam Dubey, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Prince Yadav/Varun Chakraborty.
