England beat India by eight wickets in the first T20I played at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi stadium. 

India scored 124/7 after England won the toss and elected to bowl first. Shreyas Iyer top-scored with a 48-ball 67. Indian batsmen struggled to score freely before Iyer showed the way and took the hosts to 124 for seven.

In the absence of scoreboard pressure, England overhauled the target with ease in 15.3 overs to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

“We just weren’t aware of what we had to do on that pitch, lack of execution on our shots is something we have to address. Accept your faults, come back with more intent, clarity of areas you want to hit,” Kohli said in the post-match presentation.

The Indian batsmen never got the momentum going in the series-opener as England’s pace-heavy attack, led by Mark Wood, used the extra bounce effectively to trouble them.

Most of the Indian batsmen went for flashy shots when placement would have served them well. The track had varied pace and required patience from batsmen.

Iyer though gauged the nature of the pitch quickly and adjusted his game accordingly, playing a sensible innings that helped them cross the 100-run mark.

Laced with eight boundaries and a six, and coming off 48 balls, it is Iyer’s best T20 knock. He fell in the last over.

India brought in Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rishabh Pant into the playing XI. Rohit Sharma has been rested.

India playing XI: KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal.

England playing XI: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.