India won the toss and elected to bat first at Chester-le-Street in the opening T20 of a five-match series against England. The tourists again omitted Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the 16-year-old sensation dubbed "The Six Hittin' Kid," leaving him on the bench for a second consecutive match after Ireland's historic 2-0 series sweep exposed India's vulnerabilities on home soil last week.

England field a side captained by Harry Brook in his first series as permanent T20 skipper following Ben Stokes' international retirement at Trent Bridge. Jos Buttler keeps wicket while Adil Rashid leads a spin attack complemented by Liam Dawson and Luke Wood. India, under Shreyas Iyer's second series as captain, deployed three spinners — Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, and Varun Chakravarthy