England T20I captain Harry Brook and his bowling attack seem to have their plans in place if young prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi makes his much-awaited T20I debut in series opener on July 1. After the Indian team management did not give a chance to the sensational opener in the Ireland series, it is not certain whether the youngster will make his T20I debut in Durham or not but England are prepared either way according to Brook’s pre-match statement.
"We've got our tactics and hopefully they work,” Brook said on the eve first T20I.
"There's been a lot of digging behind the scenes to see what we can do to try and stop them from playing their best cricket," he added.
Sooryavanshi is high on confidence after his 29-ball 94 in the One-Day tri-series final between India A and Sri Lanka A. He had a stellar run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 where he won several awards despite Rajasthan Royals (RR) not making it past the Qualifier 2.
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How Indian openers performed on Ireland tour
Sanju Samson, who scored three consecutive fifties in T20 World Cup 2026, hasn't found form on UK tour. He followed up a single-digit score by a golden duck. He was dismissed by left-arm pacer Jai Moondra in both games. England will look to use the services of Luke Wood or Sam Curran (if fit to bowl) early in the innings against him.
The other opener, Abhishek Sharma has a good record against England. He recorded a golden duck in the second T20I against Ireland as well. However, in the series opener, he scored a 20-ball 49 in the unsuccessful run chase.
But, the openers have got the backing of skipper Shreyas Iyer. He remained tight-lipped on the team combination, especially on the topic of Sooryavanshi’s potential T20I debut. The 15-year-old is bound to make his T20I debut on the tour but it isn’t clear when.
England Playing XI for 1st T20I vs India -
Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Harry Brook (c), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Luke Wood, Saqib Mahmood.