Key events

17m agoWICKET! Salt c Shedge b Krishna 6, England 8-1
34m agoTeams - The Kid is out
40m agoIndia win the toss and will bowl
1h agoStart delayed
2h agoPreamble

5th over: England 44-1 (Buttler 33, Brook 3) Buttler ramps the next delivery toward the opposite side of the field. Arshdeep’s third over sees the opener clip the opening ball for four. The delivery sits short rather than full, yet the bat makes contact. Now six, struck high over deep mid. Two more runs follow, and he steals the strike with a single on the final ball. Harry must wait a little longer.

4th over: England 29-1 (Buttler 18, Brook 3) Buttler executes the scoop, positioning the bat and letting the ball run for four. Prasidh Krishna follows with a low delivery from short length that strikes the thigh. Later in the over Krishna serves a full ball outside off that Buttler drives powerfully down the ground for six. A wide on the off side comes next. A late single allows Buttler to retain strike, perhaps giving the new batter time to settle. Twelve runs from the over.

3rd over: England 17-1 (Buttler 7, Brook 3) Buttler connects with a solid pull against Arshdeep that reaches the boundary. It remains the only scoring shot of the over as England’s measured beginning stretches through half the Powerplay.

Andrew Cosgrove emails in. “I have spent most of the day stuck in a Bengaluru traffic jam, so like you I chuckled to hear that the Indian coach has been delayed. Presumably over here they get a police escort to clear the road ahead (although there’s only so much that can do, I suppose). I’ve been discussing with my (Indian) partner, maybe it would have been worth trying Sooryavanshi at 3 or 4 to take a bit of the pressure off. What do you think?”

I’d say that in many ways there’s less pressure as an opener, because you don’t have to adapt to different match situations. The Kid has a clear plan to hit big as early as possible, so doing that with the field up is in his favour. He’s more devastating against pace than spin, so opening makes it more likely that he’ll get pace. And he’s not been cowed by facing big-name bowlers, so there’s no real downside. Just that it’s not as easy to launch bowling on varying pitches around the world as it is on IPL pitches.

2nd over: England 10-1 (Buttler 1, Brook 2) Harry Brook produces a large ungainly swing and misses completely. Ishan Kishan, gloves removed today in favour of Samson, still attempts to keep from cover, calling for a catch and pushing for a review. The captain declines, and replay confirms Brook missed. Brook gets off the mark next ball with a pull for two.

WICKET! Salt c Shedge b Krishna 6, England 8-1

Prasidh Krishna, tall and lean, opens from the opposite end. Phil Salt strikes the first boundary with a straight drive, clean rather than powerful, past the bowler. His innings ends on the next ball as he strikes toward deep square leg where one of the two permitted boundary fielders takes the catch on the full. Shedge claims the catch on debut.

1st over: England 4-0 (Salt 2, Buttler 1) England begin quietly with the bat. Arshdeep Singh swings the ball with left-arm deliveries, and neither Salt nor Buttler attempts any aggressive strokes.

Looks like we’re finally going to get a game.

Teams - The Kid is out

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has been omitted for the first time, with Samson returning and Suryansh Shedge handed a debut. His surname is pronounced Shed-geh rather than rhyming with hedge.

Dawson enters the England side as a spinning all-rounder.

England
Phil Salt
Jos Buttler +
Harry Brook *
Jacob Bethell
Tom Banton
Sam Curran
Will Jacks
Liam Dawson
Jofra Archer
Adil Rashid
Josh Tongue

India
Sanju Samson +
Abishek Sharma
Ishan Kishan
Shreyas Iyer *
Shivam Dube
Tilak Varma
Suryansh Shedge
Axar Patel
Prince Yadav
Arshdeep Singh
Prasidh Krishna

Harry Brook confirms he preferred to bat first. Iyer notes the pitch is unlikely to alter greatly, suggesting India wish to assess conditions before batting.

India win the toss and will bowl

Shreyas Iyer calls heads correctly, giving India a modest advantage.

There we have it: the toss will be 45 minutes after the scheduled time, then a shortened break before play, which will start 30 minutes after the scheduled time.

Footage on the telly of India’s players arriving at the ground. We’re waiting on revised start times.

Also remarkable, considering the adventure that is travelling by road in Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, that Indian teams still consistently reach the ground on time in all of those places, but had to come to England to get a bad enough traffic jam to keep them from playing.

Start delayed

This is a comical one. The start of this match will be delayed. Not because of rain, not because of lightning. Not because of bees. Not because of stray crossbow bolts. No, the start of this match will be delayed because of… traffic.

The Indian bus is stuck in traffic, and the players couldn’t get to the ground in time.

Who would have predicted that the cricket ground nestled between two motorways, miles outside of the nearest town, with no reasonable means of getting there by public transport, would have problems with traffic?

Ah well, good thing there’s an Ashes Test scheduled there next year, no doubt that will go swimmingly.

Preamble

Geoff will be here shortly.