'They have a stronger batting team' - Aakash Chopra predicts result of 1st ENG-IND T20I

Former India opener Aakash Chopra has made his prediction for the first T20I between England and India that will be played at the Rose Bowl in Southampton on Thursday, July 7. The hosts will be led by Jos Buttler who succeeded Eoin Morgan as their limited-overs skipper after the latter announced his retirement from international cricket recently.

While Chopra made his prediction, he backed England to come out on top in the series-opener and at the same time also predicted that 15 sixes will be hit in this contest as both are big six-hitting teams. A fit Rohit Sharma will be back in action to lead the Indian team and the playing XI will consist of the same players who had featured in the Ireland series.

Jos Buttler is unstoppable: Aakash Chopra

“My very first prediction is I feel that Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan will together score more than 75 runs. I mean Buttler is unstoppable even though the team’s fortunes are 50-50 at the moment and if you look at the last five matches, they have lost two and won only two, but Buttler single-handedly gets the job done single-handedly and Dawid Malan, I rate him very high and I reckon even he will score runs,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

“Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav I reckon will score more than 70 runs even though Rohit is available for the opening slot. Does that mean Sanju will play? Or will Sanju not play and Deepak Hooda will play at number three or will Sanju Samson play or?” he added.

At the same time, the cricketer-turned-pundit also explained the reason behind him picking England to draw first blood in the three-match T20I series. “I feel that England will win this match even though India’s bowling looks a bit better when it comes to man-to-man marking and the opposition team is a bit stronger as far as their batting is concerned.”

Aakash Chopra’s predicted India XI for first T20I: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar