Captain Morgan takes England to victory against India in Kanpur

Kanpur: England beat India by 7 wickets with 11 balls to spare here on Thursday to take 1-0 lead in the T20 series.

Chasing 148, Captain Eoin Morgan (51) and Joe Root (45) stabilised and anchored the innings after Jason Roy and Sam Billings gave the visitors a blistering but departed early.

Earlier, the England bowling attack had restricted India to 147/7 in 20 overs and despite the early blip, their batting came good and gave them a deserved win.

The next T20 match will be played in Nagpur on January 29.

England 129/3 from 16 overs

Parvez Rasool picks up his first T20 international wicket but it is too little too late as Eoin Morgan has already done enough damage.

England 114/2 from 14 overs

Morgan and Root have put England firmly on course for victory by mixing ones and twos with boundaries

England 76/2 from 10 overs

England look on course to chase down 148 but Joe Root and Eoin Morgan are finding it tough against Chahal.

England 48/2 from 6 overs

After an explosive start, England have been put on the defensive by spinners Chahal and Parvez Rasool.

England 43/2 from 4 overs

Yuzvendra Chahal bounces back after getting hit for a six on his first ball by removing England openers Jason Roy and Sam Billings in his first over.

England 24/0 from 2 overs

Sam Billings takes Jasprit Bumrah to the cleaners as he smashes him for 20.

England 4/0 from 1 over

Ashish Nehra has opened the bowling for India.

Kanpur: England would definitely be the happier side having restricted India to 147 and all in all, they would feel they have executed their plan well. Tymal Mills looks to be the real deal as he led bowling attack well, supported ably by Chris Jordan. Moeen Ali was England's standout bowler after he picked up a couple of wickets including that of Virat Kohli.

Kohli gave India a good start but a lack of any kind of partnership in the middle order hurt the hosts. Dhoni did well in the end, settling down before attacking the English bowlers.

It is a respectable total but not daunting by any means and England will be confident of chasing it down without too much fuss.

India 147/7 from 20 overs

It's not happened for India today but Dhoni is making sure the hosts put up a competitive total as he whacks Chris Jordan for back to back boundaries.

India 128/6 from 18 overs

Tymal Mills picks up first T20I wicket as Hardik Pandya mishits an upper cut and is caught by Sam Billings.

India 117/5 from 16 overs

Ben Stokes is struggling with his line with a couple of wides and Dhoni and Pandya aim to finish with a flourish.

India 103/5 from 14 overs

England have struck with back to back wickets as Ben Stokes gets rid of Suresh Raina first before Moeen Ali traps Manish Pandey LBW.

India 88/3 from 12 overs

Yuvraj Singh is gone as Adil Rasheed takes a fantastic catch. MS Dhoni joins Raina at the crease.

India 75/2 from 10 overs

Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina keep the score ticking as India seem to be in a healthy position at the halfway stage.

India 58/2 from 8 overs

Moeen Ali, just brought into the attack, gets rid of Virat Kohli who plays it straight to Eoin Morgan. Yuvraj Singh is the new man in.

India 47/1 from 6 overs

Chris Jordan gets rid of KL Rahul as Rasheed takes a simple catch off a top edge. Local boy Suresh Raina has arrived at the crease.

India 33/0 from 4 overs

Back to back boundaries from Kohli as India switch gears.

India 16/0 from 2 overs

Kohli looks confident as comes down the ground to hit Chris Jordan for a four.

India: 9/0 from 1 over

India have made a positive start in Kanpur. Virat Kohli has indeed opened the innings with KL Rahul.

Looks like Virat Kohli is going to open the innings with KL Rahul!

India playing XI: L Rahul, V Kohli, MS Dhoni (w), Y Singh, M Pandey, H Pandya, S Raina, P Rasool, Y Chahal, A Nehra, J Bumrah.

England playing XI: J Roy, S Billings, J Root(c), E Morgan, B Stokes, J Buttler(w), M Ali, C Jordan, L Plunkett, A Rashid, T Mills.

Debutant Parvez Rasool received his T20I India cap from national team selector Sarandeep Singh.

England have won the toss and elected to field first in the first T20 in Kanpur.

Kanpur: After making short work of England in the Test and ODI series, Virat Kohli and the Men in Blue turn their attentions to the three T20 games starting with the first one today in Kanpur.

Having rested their first-choice spin duo of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, Kohli will be hoping the likes of Amit Mishra and Parvez Rasool step up and grab their chance with both hands.

Given the lack of natural openers in the Indian squad, it will be interesting to see if young Rishabh Pant gets a chance. The 19-year-old has been in fine nick for the youth teams and List A teams so this could be an opportunity to see if he can cut it at the highest level.

England captain Eoin Morgan claimed the victory in third ODI was a big morale booster despite the series loss and he will want his team to show some hunger as they hope to salvage something from this tour of India.

The English have kept faith with majority of the players that were part of the ODI squad save for the inclusion of speedster Tymal Mills who is considered a T20 specialist.

India Squad: Virat Kohli (C), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, MS Dhoni (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mandeep Singh, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Parvez Rasool, KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh.

England Squad: Eoin Morgan (C), Moeen Ali, Jake Ball, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Tymal Mills, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey.