Brendon McCullum begins his tenure as England’s all-format head coach on Wednesday as his side go up against India in the primary of 5 T20s in Kolkata.
Here, we take a look at a few of the talking points of the tour, which also comprises three ODIs as a warm-up for next month’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan
Under the McCullum-Ben Stokes axis, England have won 22 of 35 Tests having triumphed only once of their previous 17.
Pivotal to the transformation has been a more relaxed environment, with McCullum emboldening his players to push the envelop largely free from fear of consequences.
He has been brought on board for England’s white-ball sides after they relinquished each World Cup crowns within the last 18 months.
And the early signs are the previous Recent Zealand captain will bring the identical style to the T20 and ODI teams as he’s “desperate for us to play a very watchable brand of cricket”.
Pace, pace, pace
England have discarded their medium-fast bowlers and brought along half a dozen out-and-out quicks, with Mark Wood and Jofra Archer the headline acts.
Wood will make his return at Eden Gardens having been sidelined since August with an elbow injury and Archer continues his carefully-managed comeback.
Brydon Carse, Jamie Overton, Saqib Mahmood and Gus Atkinson are also all able to bowling within the high 80-mph range, and McCullum has backed them to send down “absolute rockets” and “blow teams away”.
Bethell on the up
Jacob Bethell has enjoyed a shocking begin to his international profession, impressing on the white-ball tour of the Caribbean in November when England were missing several regulars then registering three Test fifties in Recent Zealand before Christmas.
The 21-year-old might already be an England regular in all three formats. An eight-match tour of India represents one other stern examination as he can have attention thrust on him, the like of which he has never experienced.
England captain Jos Buttler thinks he’s up for the challenge, saying: “He has an excellent head on his shoulders and has the sport for it.”
Deputy Harry
With Moeen Ali retiring from international duty after last 12 months’s T20 World Cup, England have belatedly alighted on Harry Brook as Buttler’s vice-captain.
The Yorkshireman stood in for Buttler during a 3-2 ODI series defeat to Australia on the back end of last summer.
And, based on Buttler, Brook “was as positive a captain as I’ve ever seen”. With Buttler and McCullum signalling their intentions to be as aggressive as possible, Brook seems the best selection as lieutenant.
India up in arms
Whisper it but, from afar, it seems all just isn’t well within the India camp. A brand new decree from the Board of Control for Cricket in India goals to clamp down on the time players spend with their families on tour.
The choice was made hot on the heels of India losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia for the primary time in a decade, having been beaten 3-1 Down Under.
The world T20 champions usually are not at full strength for this series with Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant absent while Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have retired from T20s.
But Mohammed Shami is about to return after greater than a 12 months out injured.
READ MORE: Ben Duckett to open batting with Phil Salt in England’s first T20 in India
