England and Archer off to a flying start

FIRST blood to England in the clash of the Twenty20 titans and an emphatic answer to the question of whether Eoin Morgan’s white-ball side should take priority over Test cricket in a World Cup year. If this five-match series in Ahmedabad between the best two Twenty20 sides in the world is a dress rehearsal for the global tournament in India in October, then England got all their lines right on opening night. First, Jofra Archer (below), absent with an elbow problem for the last Test and forced to defend his injury record and commitment to the longer game, showed there are no doubts about either in Twenty20 with a superb display of fast bowling. Then Jason roy hit three sixes in one of his best innings since the glorious 50-over World Cup triumph in 2019 as England made mincemeat of a well below-par India total. All at the same magnificent Narendra Modi Stadium where England were beaten into the ground in the last two Tests. A crowd of 67,200 yesterday, conspicuous by their lack of social distancing in the 132,000 capacity ground, were reduced to total silence. ‘You always have good competition against India and good competition brings out the best in me,’ said Archer afterwards. ‘I was just happy to contribute to a very good team performance but we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves as it was only the first game of the series.’ Yet this was a near perfect performance from England from the moment Archer bowled KL rahul with the help of an inside edge from his second ball. Morgan had sprung a surprise by opening with the leg-spin of Adil rashid for the first time but it proved a masterstroke when Virat Kohli fell to his second successive duck — his third in his last five innings with both red ball and white. Only Shreyas Iyer, with 67 off 48 balls, held it together and guided India to 124 for seven before falling to an excellent boundary catch from Dawid Malan. It was never going to be enough once England had raced to 50 without loss in their six-over power-play, with roy and Jos Buttler further establishing themselves as England’s first-choice T20 opening partnership with a stand of 72. By the time both fell, all Malan and Jonny Bairstow, recovering from his own Test nightmare, had to do was ease England beyond the finishing line, victory coming with a Malan six with eight wickets and 27 balls in hand. Just as in the Test series, it leaves Kohli needing a response when the teams meet again in Ahmedabad tomorrow.