This was a reminder. For all of England’s obvious pedigree – power with the bat, high pace with the ball, trophies in the cabinet – Brendon McCullum has work to do.
An England white‑ball setup that has had a difficult couple of years was swept aside by a side that is running hot, India securing their 14th win out of 16 since taking the T20 World Cup last year, a seven-wicket victory secured with 43 balls left.
A comprehensive Indian chase in Kolkata was set up by a tale familiar to England across formats: a struggle against spin. While Jos Buttler impressed with a 44-ball 68, his teammates floundered during the middle overs. The variety of Varun Chakravarthy, Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi was too much, the trio going at less than six an over, the first two sharing five wickets. In what was billed as a run-fest, England managed just 132.
Then came a futuristic batting lineup that had amassed more than 200 in five of their previous six games. Sanju Samson kicked things off with 22 from Gus Atkinson’s first over but the night was Abhishek Sharma’s, a left-hander who lets the hands fly. His staggering 34-ball 79 brought the premature finish, McCullum’s time as all-format head coach beginning with a serious thump.
Both sides lined up with enterprise in their batting but differed in their method for wickets. A day out from the game England had named a bowling attack featuring four quicks while India played one specialist fast bowler in Arshdeep Singh. The hosts, with three full‑time spinners, backed their slow stuff against McCullum’s need for speed.
A green‑tinged pitch immediately welcomed pace, though, with Arshdeep inviting early miscues from Phil Salt and Ben Duckett to leave England at 17 for two after three overs, the powerplay threatening to go to waste.
Buttler pushed back. McCullum has geed him up in recent days, arguing that the best of the 34‑year‑old could still be on the way, the new coach trying to replace his captain’s thousand-yard stare with a liberated smile. With Arshdeep in control from one end, Buttler targeted Hardik Pandya with six boundaries off the all-rounder’s first two overs, the ball picked through various leg-side gaps.
India’s Abhishek Sharma plays a shot on his way to 79 from 34 balls. Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images
Support from elsewhere did not arrive. Harry Brook offered a touch of his genius with a six over extra cover off Axar but little else, undone on 17 by a Chakravarthy googly. The spinner’s stump-to-stump mystery proved as indecipherable as a five‑year‑old’s handwriting; two balls later Liam Livingstone fell to the same variation, the collapse under way.
Jacob Bethell went rhythmless with a 14-ball seven. Jamie Overton, picked for the late surge, was called in too early inside the 12th over, his stay brief. A Buttler pull for six off Chakravarthy to begin the 17th over was not the start of a grand one-man finish, a fielder found with the next ball to leave England 109 for eight.
“A little bit of movement in the pitch early on and we lost a couple of wickets but we just didn’t quite impose the game that we wanted to play,” Buttler said. “If anything, be more aggressive and come back harder in the next one.”
Could England’s quicks at least make the evening tense? Jofra Archer began with a short leg and five dots, too. But Samson then laid into Atkinson, a flattish six over cover the pick of them, before Sharma made fine use of Archer’s speed, minimal footwork carrying another six over the offside. Archer found joy by dismissing Samson and Suryakumar Yadav in the same over, but Sharma soaked up the heat once again, using Mark Wood to guide the ball for consecutive sixes.
When Adil Rashid’s leggies were introduced in the eighth over, it felt a touch too late for the tempo change. Sharma was not up for doing it in singles: he slugged 16 off three Rashid deliveries before diverting Overton over fine leg to reach his half-century. Rashid eventually got him – but with eight required from 49 balls, the game was long gone.
