Key events
4th over: England 39-1 (Buttler 22, Bethell 16) Buttler breaks those rubber wrists and deposits as too full ball from Airee down the ground for four immediately after rocking back and bunting a short ball through point for the same. England recovering well after the early loss of Salt.
3rd over: England 28-1 (Buttler 12, Bethell 15) Buttler bashes a four through the leg side, not pretty but needs must. Nine runs off the over with a minimum of fuss, Nepal shuffle their pack, Dipendra Singh Airee is coming on to bowl some off spin.
2nd over: England 19-1 (Buttler 4, Bethell 14) Jacob Bethell is the new batter. The 23 year old Malla is brought back to earth immediately as Bethell cashes in on some short stuff, a cut for four behind point is followed by a wallop over midwicket for SIX! Malla drops short again and is swivelled away for a third boundary in the over. A mixed bag from the debutant but he’ll remember that first ball for a long time.
WICKET! Phil Salt c Lamichhane b Malla 1 (England 5-1)
Sher Malla strikes with his first ball on international debut! It skids onto Salt who mis-times his pull shot, the ball loops up and is well taken at fine leg. England lose their first and the Nepalese strong crowd at the Wankhede lose their marbles! What a start.
1st over: England 5-0 (Salt 1, Buttler 4) Phil Salt opens England’s account off the first delivery with a firm drive to mid on where the ball is fumbled and the batters scamper a single. Jos Buttler clubs a four down the ground but is then beaten on the outside edge by an beautiful delivery that jags late. Two dots finish a tidy first over from Karan.
A noisy crowd, packed with support for Nepal. The experienced Karan Khatri Chhetri will start with the new ball, fast seam first up for England’s openers. Let’s play!
Here come Jos Buttler and the returning Phil Salt who has been suffering from back spasms but is good to go today. Buttler is apparently now called ‘Grandpa’ by his younger teammates. He’s 35.
The players emerge into bright sunshine, Nepal in navy with red piping and England in Red with navy kecks. My four year old daughter says she is cheering for the pink team (the umpires) before running off to draw a picture. Presumably of Rod Tucker.
Simon Burnton is our man in Mumbai, you’ve got just enough time before the first ball to dip into his scene setter.
Teams:
England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Tom Banton, 5 Harry Brook (c), 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Luke Wood.
Nepal: 1 Aasif Sheikh (wk), 2 Kushal Bhurtel, 3 Rohit Paudel (c), 4 Dipendra Airee, 5 Aarif Sheikh, 6 Lokesh Bam, 7 Gulsan Jha, 8 Karan KC, 9 Sandeep Lamichhane, 10 Nandan Yadav, 11 Sher Malla
England have gone for Tom Banton over Ben Duckett at number four and Luke Wood gets the nod over Jamie Overton. Nepal hand a debut cap to impressive young spinner Sher Malla. Engkand are stacked with spinners too, we’ll see plenty of the stuff today.
England win the toss and choose to bat first
Harry Brook gets the rub of the coin and chooses to have first use on a used surface that India and the USA played on yesterday. There was some spin and bounce on offer in that match, England will look to get runs on the board on a wicket that could deteriorate.
It is steaming hot in Mumbai and there is extremely strong support for Nepal. Their captain, Rohit Paudel, says he is happy as he would have bowled first anyway.
Preamble
James Wallace
“All I do is hit a ball with a bat, and that’s what I want to carry on doing for the rest of my career – 15, 20 years or whatever – and that’s all it should be… Thankfully, I’m still pretty good at that.”
Harry Brook has had a torrid time off the field in the last few weeks as his words ahead of England’s first game in this T20 World Cup attested. On the pitch, his side have been performing well, with 10 wins in their last 11 completed T20Is.
Nepal, their opponents today in Group C are not to be taken lightly, they have won their last five T20Is and have been here before, this is their third T20 World Cup and they beat West Indies last year in a bilateral series. England have suffered humiliation at the hands of associate nations in big tournaments before and a spinning pitch at Mumbai’s famous Wankhede Stadium coupled with robust opposition will be a significant test of their mettle.
Play begins in a little over half an hour, at 9.30am GMT, and the coin is about to be flipped. Join us for what should be an intriguing match as England start their 2026 World Cup campaign.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2026/feb/08/england-v-nepal-t20-world-cup-live
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