T20I series: It’s Bazball vs SKYball for the first match in Eden

It’s another day, another format. The T20I series against England, which begins at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday, 22 January, is a perfect opportunity for Suryakumar Yadav’s men to divert the attention of their fans after all the heat and dust generated from back-to-back Test series defeats.

The impact of these two debacles, which resulted in missing out on a berth in the World Test Championship (WTC), created so much angst that India’s thumping 3-1 series win in their last T20I series in South Africa seems almost a forgotten dream now.

The T20 world champions, however, have not put a foot wrong since that magical evening in Bridgetown, Barbados, on 29 June 2024 and would like to carry on the good work against Jos Buttler & Co. over the next two weeks.

The broadcasters are calling it ‘Bazball vs SKYball’ to drum up the hype, in a reference to a clash of the gung-ho style of cricket propagated by Brendon McCullum (now England’s chief coach for all formats) against the new-age Indian batters’ breezy style of cricket.

The impact of the Sanju Samson–Tilak Varma onslaught of November 2024 had left the South African attack in a daze, while the likes of Avishek Sharma, Rinku Singh and Arshdeep Singh have created the perfect mix along with seniors like SKY and Hardik Pandya to build a nucleus for the squad’s title defence in 2026.

“There is still a long way to go for the next T20 World Cup. However, there are a few areas where we would like to work upon from now on,” said a jovial ‘Surya’.

The statistics sum up how phenomenal India was in this format in 2024: they won 24 of their 26 matches — and ended the ICC trophy jinx since the West Indies series. The Gautam Gambhir–SKY regime won all three T20 series in the wake of the World T20 success — a 3-0 sweep while away in Sri Lanka, 3-0 against Bangladesh at home and then a rousing win against the Proteas.

The away series against South Africa (where VVS Laxman had filled in as the coach while Gambhir was engaged in the Test series against the Kiwis) saw young Tilak Varma emerging as the Player of the Series, with an aggregate of 280 runs from four innings at a strike rate of 198.58. The back-to-back centuries which Tilak scored came in the No. 3 position in the batting line-up, which SKY had relinquished at the request of his Mumbai Indians junior.

The swapping of batting positions will, however, have no bearing on the upcoming series. “Apart from the openers, our middle order will continue to be flexible. I can bat at No. 3 again as per the demands of the situation,” Surya said at the media conference today, 21 January.

An element of suspense lingers around the Eden Gardens over the match-fitness of Mohammed Shami, the veteran paceman who is making a comeback to international cricket after a injury lay-off of more than a year. Asked about his availability for Wednesday’s game, the captain said in jest: “Well, he came in the team bus with us.”

“It’s going to be a great series against a really top side in their own conditions. There are loads to look forward to,” remarked his opposite, England’s captain Jos Buttler.

Interestingly, the two white ball series lined up mark the entry of McCullum as England’s chief coach, an upgrade from his previous role of Test coach. Asked what difference it could make to their philosophy of playing the game, Buttler said Baz has been around for quite a while now.  

“Obviously it’s not a new set-up because Baz has been around for a while and there are a lot of players in this squad that have been with him in the Test set-up for a number of years already. We are just looking forward to building that relationship in the wide ball set-up,” Buttler told us.

Catch the match

India vs England

First T20 International, Kolkata

Match starts at 7 p.m.