Key events
England win the toss and bowl
Two stand-in captains at the toss. Smriti Mandhana calls incorrectly and Charlie Dean puts India into the bat. Smriti confirms that Harmanpreet Kaur is being rested today.
India are in a horrible group at the T20 World Cup. Only two teams qualify for the semi-finals, which makes the presence of Australia and South Africa (who beat India 4-1 in a recent T20 series) less than ideal. But there’s still every chance India can become undisputed white-ball world champions.
Aside from that defeat in South Africa, their T20 form has been excellent since they failed to get out of the group at the last World Cup two years ago. In the last 12 months they have won T20 series in both England and Australia – and nine of their squad started the ODI World Cup final win over South Africa in November.
Preamble
What do you get for beating the world champions? An even tougher test a few days later. England started their T20 World Cup build-up with a 2-1 series win over the holders New Zealand; now they face the 50-over world champions, India, in an intriguing three-match series that begins at a sweltering Chelmsford.
Most people have India as second favourites behind Australia to win the World Cup, so this is a litmus test for both teams. But while neither team will want to go into the World Cup on the back of a series defeat, winning and losing is only part of the story. Cricket is an individual game within a team sport, and there are places up for grabs in both teams.
By the time the series finishes at Taunton on Tuesday, Charlotte Edwards and Amol Muzumdar should know their XIs to start the World Cup.
Tonight’s match begins at 6.30pm.