INDIA VS ENGLAND the T20I Series begins today evening, which team drops the first blood?

The T20I series that begins on Friday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad pits the top two ranked sides in the world against each other. In T20I cricket, they are the market leaders, with England ranked number one and India close by in second place. Of all the Test playing nations, they have, by some distance, the best win-loss record in T20Is over the last two years. Although India are missing Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, they still have a very strong squad while England are more or less at full-strength.

Then there is the added context of the T20 World Cup to come later this year. Eoin Morgan, England's captain, believes India are favourites for that tournament in their own conditions and few would disagree. But England should be there or thereabouts too and this series is an opportunity for them to test themselves against one of their competitors for the title in the sort of conditions that Morgan believes they still need to improve in. India too have things to learn, about the balance of their side, their batting combinations and certain individuals. They must do so quickly. These are the only three T20Is they have before the World Cup.

INDIA Possible XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer/Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur/Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini/Axar Patel.

ENGLAND Possible XI: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid.