India, who are set to face England in the opening match of a five-match T20I series at Chester-le-Street on Wednesday, will look to turn the page on a disappointing start under new captain Shreyas Iyer. The men in blue are coming off a crushing 2-0 series defeat against Ireland that exposed their batting vulnerabilities on testing pitches. More notably, it was a sad beginning for Iyer's leadership tenure, with India's highly-rated batting lineup struggling to adapt to demanding surfaces.

Amid the batting failures, Indian bowlers made good use of the conditions. Indian openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma will be in focus after enduring a disappointing series. Samson registering scores of 5 and 0. Abhishek looked in good touch with a powerful 49 in the first game, but he failed to build on that start, getting dismissed for a duck in the second encounter. The spotlight is also on the much-anticipated debut of teenage sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. After receiving his maiden India call-up, Sooryavanshi warmed the benches during the Ireland series. Now it only remains to be seen whether the management persist with the current opening combination or hand a debut to promising youngster Vaibhav Sooryvanshi.

Meanwhile, England will return to the shortest format following their semifinal exit at the T20 World Cup, where they were knocked out by India. Harry Brook is at the helm, and England have retained the same set of players that featured at the World Cup. England's batting has experience, with Jos Buttler, Phil Salt, Jacob Bethell and Tom Banton possessing the ability to play big knocks. In the bowling department, they have a well-rounded attack, featuring the likes of Saqib Mahmood, Sam Curran and Luke Wood in the pace unit, while veteran leg-spinner Adil Rashid will be crucial in the spin attack. Going by the tradition, the hosts have already named their playing XI.

Head-to-head

Matches - 30

ENG won - 12

IND won - 18

England XI: Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Harry Brook (c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Saqib Mahmood, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood

India probable XI: Sanju Samson/Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Tilak Varma, Suryansh Shedge, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy