India are facing England in the first T20I of the five-match series at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday (January 22). The fans were eager to see Mohammed Shami make his return to competitive cricket but he missed out. There was no place for the senior pacer in the final XI and he was benched for the series opener.

However, Aakash Chopra was of the opinion that Shami is not 100% fit. The former India opener took to X to share his take on Shami and wrote: "Shami not playing. Obviously not 100% fit for today. India has chosen to play only one frontline pacer in Arshdeep. Hardik-Nitish the two other pace options. England have fielded 4 proper pacers. Both captains seeing the pitch differently."

Shami made his return to Team India for the first time since the 2023 ODI World Cup final. An injury kept him away from IPL 2024 and the T20 World Cup. The right-arm pacer did make his return for Bengal but he wasn't named in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy squad.

Shami returned to the T20I team and was also named in India's Champions Trophy squad. He is expected to play a couple of matches in the series before flying to Dubai for the ICC event.

Meanwhile, India captain Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and opted to bowl first. "We will look to bowl first. The wicket looks sticky, there will be dew later on. It will be heavier later on. The boys have been amazing. The preparations have been good, looking forward to this series. It's going to be great competition between both the sides. A good headache, we want to stick to our strengths," he said.

India: Suryakumar Yadav (Captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy

England: Jos Buttler (Captain), Ben Duckett, Philip Salt, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood

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