England Elects to Bat First Against Nepal at T20 World Cup

Harry Brook won the toss and opted to bat first against Nepal in their inaugural T20 international clash at Wankhede Stadium. The match unfolds on the same pitch used in India’s game against the United States, where the hosts scored 161 for 9.

Nepal captain Rohit Paudel noted that his team prefers slower surfaces and anticipated some turn on the worn track. “We love slow tracks, and it’s a used wicket so I think it will spin a little bit,” Paudel said. “If that happens, it will help our team. To be honest, we would have bowled first. Looking at the conditions, chasing is a good option.”

Team Selections and Debut Spotlight

Nepal hands a T20I debut to young spinner Sher Malla, while Lokesh Bam earns a spot in the middle order ahead of veteran Sompal Kami. The team benefits from playing all four group-stage matches at Wankhede, supported by thousands of fans in Mumbai.

“Playing all the games here will always be an advantage,” Paudel added. “As a team, playing in Asian conditions always helps Nepal.”

Brook expects the pitch to deteriorate later, favoring the first innings. “We feel like the pitch is going to be in the best shape for the first innings, and then hopefully we can bowl well and defend our score,” he said. “It looked like there was a little bit of spin and bounce, so we can utilize that in the second innings.”

England selects Luke Wood over Jamie Overton for seam bowling depth. “We wanted two out-and-out seamers up top with the new ball to swing it and grab early powerplay wickets,” Brook explained. “Pretty much everything else was settled.”

Playing XIs

England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Tom Banton, 5 Harry Brook (capt), 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Luke Wood.

Nepal: 1 Aasif Sheikh (wk), 2 Kushal Bhurtel, 3 Rohit Paudel (capt), 4 Dipendra Airee, 5 Aarif Sheikh, 6 Lokesh Bam, 7 Gulsan Jha, 8 Karan KC, 9 Sher Malla, 10 Nandan Yadav, 11 Sandeep Lamichhane.