India vs England, 1st T20I Highlights: Hardik Pandya put in an all-round performance as India defeated England by 50 runs in the first T20I at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton. Chasing a target of 199, England were bowled out for 148 in 19.3 overs. Hardik Pandya was the pick of the bowlers for India, having bagged four wickets. Earlier, Hardik Pandya hit his maiden T20I fifty as India scored a total of 198 for eight. Hardik scored a 51 after Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Hooda had played knocks of 39 and 33. For England, Chris Jordan was the pick of the bowlers with his spell of two for 23. Rohit Sharma also played a brisk knock of 24 before losing his wicket to Moeen Ali, who also dismissed Ishan Kishan in his next over. Earlier, India had won the toss and Rohit elected to bat against England in the first T20I of the three-match series at the Ageas Bowl Stadium in Southampton. Young pacer Arshdeep Singh will make his debut, having received his cap ahead of the toss. Rohit Sharma will be back in charge of the team after missing the rescheduled fifth Test due to Covid. His return will boost India's batting line-up, especially with Virat Kohli expected to be rested, and KL Rahul out with an injury. England, on the other hand, will start a new era in white-ball cricket, following the retirement of Eoin Morgan, who stepped down as captain after nearly seven years in charge. The man who will replace him, Jos Buttler, has been in fine form with the bat
The right-handed batter from Baroda slammed his maiden T20I fifty and brilliant cameos from Deepak Hooda, Rohit Sharma, and Suryakumar Yadav helped the visitors post 198/7 after the India skipper opted to bat first after the coin landed in his favour.
Jos Buttler, losing captain: They bowled well with the new ball and put us under pressure. We couldn't get away from that point. We came back really well in the second half with the ball. Probably a bit above par and they swung the ball consistently. Bhuvneshwar Kumar can swing it in any condition. Certainly, the ball swung longer than I can remember in a T20 game.
Rohit Sharma, winning captain: Great performance from ball one. All batters showed intent. Although the pitch was good, we played good shots and never got ahead of the game. You got to make use of those six overs in the powerplay. There is a certain approach we want to take in the powerplay. You got to back yourself in this game, sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn't. The whole batting unit needs to understand the direction the team is taking and the guys were spot on today. I was impressed with his (Hardik) bowling. He wants to do that a lot more in the future, bowled quick and used his variations too. Of course, his batting is there for us to see. That's the reason we wanted to bat (ball swinging under lights). Sometimes it does swing in the evenings and we wanted to utilize that.
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