England’s new era starts with a whimper as dominant India race to T20 victory
The tourists could only manage 132 as India’s spinners took control, before Abhishek Sharma starred with the bat
England’s new white-ball era under Brendon McCullum began on a bum note as India drew first blood in the five-match T20 series with a comprehensive seven-wicket victory in Kolkata.
McCullum has urged England to be “really watchable” under his stewardship as all-format head coach but only Jos Buttler got the memo as his 68 off 44 balls was over half of England’s subpar 132 all out.
Buttler held the innings together well before hitting the accelerator as he ran out of partners, holing out off Varun Chakravarthy, who earlier bowled Harry Brook and Liam Livingstone in his three for 23.
The tourists needed a miracle from their coterie of quicks, and a fired-up Jofra Archer removed Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav in the same over while Mark Wood hit 95.6mph on his return from injury.
But England’s rusty batting display – Buttler aside – after losing the toss was put into sharp relief by Abhishek Sharma, who belted eight sixes and five fours in a stunning 79 off 34 deliveries.
Abhishek’s efforts helped the world champions secure victory with 7.1 overs to spare under lights at Eden Gardens.
Arshdeep Singh took out both England openers via leading edges, with Phil Salt lasting three balls on his return to a ground where he averaged 58 at a strike-rate of 185 in the 2024 Indian Premier League.
While Arshdeep exploited helpful conditions, Buttler took advantage of the wayward Hardik Pandya at the other end with six fours including four in an over to get the scoreboard ticking upwards.
Harry Brook overcame a skittish start in his first outing as Buttler’s deputy and captain and vice-captain both cleared the ropes off Axar Patel in a breezy 48-run union off just 28 deliveries.
But England soon came unstuck as spin again proved their downfall, with Brook departing for 17 after failing to read Chakravarthy’s googly as he was bowled through the gate while Livingstone departed in near identical fashion two balls later.
Leg-spinners Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi strangled the scoring rate, as did slow left-armer Axar after his initial humbling by Brook and Buttler, as England amassed just 57 runs in overs seven to 16.
Jacob Bethell and Jamie Overton both dispatched catches to fielders on the boundary while Buttler was peculiarly starved of the strike during Gus Atkinson’s torturous 13-ball stay which yielded just two.
Running out of partners, Buttler sought to up the ante and hammered Chakravarthy over deep midwicket before miscuing the next ball to Nitish Kumar Reddy, the standout catch in a well-drilled fielding display by the hosts.
Archer became only the third England batter to reach double figures with 12 off 10 balls before he perished in the final over, as did Wood, who was run out from the last delivery of the innings.
England required the pair, plus Atkinson and Overton, to dig them out of a hole.
McCullum has gone for genuine quicks on the trip in a bid to “blow teams away” but while India can no longer select the retired Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in this format, they showed they have an abundance of talent.
Archer conceded just a single from his opening bow but Atkinson was butchered to all parts by Samson, who creamed the fast bowler over extra cover and flayed four fours to take 22 from the over.
Abhishek settled with a sumptuous six over cover off Archer, who then hurried Samson into pulling to deep midwicket before Yadav top-edged to Salt, preferred as wicketkeeper to Jamie Smith.
Archer might have had three in the over but Tilak Varma’s wild slash from his first ball flew agonisingly over Salt before Abhishek took Wood to task, using his pace against him to take successive sixes behind square.
The usually dependable Adil Rashid put down a sharp return chance to reprieve Abhishek, who punished the leg-spinner with three boundaries off the next three balls, including two towering maximums.
Rashid did eventually claim his man, with Abhishek skewing to Brook in the deep, but by then India needed just eight to win and they got over the line in the following over.
PA