England 130 for 2 (Roy 49, Buttler 28, Sundar 1-18) beat India 124 for 7 (Iyer 67, Pant 21, Archer 3-23, Rashid 1-14) by eight wickets
Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Chris Jordan ambushed India with blistering pace and trampoline bounce, taking the two-paced Ahmedabad track out of the equation and reminding the world why they are the No.1-ranked T20I side. England's irresistible attack consigned India to 22 for 3 in first six overs - their second-lowest powerplay score in T20Is - and although Shreyas Iyer scored 67 off 48 balls, the hosts could muster only 124 for 7.
In stark contrast, England stormed to 50 for 0 in their powerplay in the chase, with Jason Roy and Jos Buttler repeatedly mowing India's depleted attack to the boundary. India captain Virat Kohli had promised a similar gung-ho approach from their top order on the eve of the series opener, but while the intent was there, the execution was awry.
KL Rahul dragged a 141kph dart from Archer back onto his stumps for 1 and then Kohli backed away first ball to Adil Rashid, who had taken the new ball for England, swishing him in the air to mid-off for a duck. When Wood blasted out Shikhar Dhawan with a 148kph thunderbolt, India were 20 for 3 in the fifth over, with their top three having managed a mere five runs together.
Iyer tried his best to give India's bowlers something to defend, but that soon became next to nothing once Roy and Buttler got cracking. Both the England openers fell lbw to spin, but Dawid Malan and Johnny Bairstow took them home by batting at a similar high gear and throwing down the gauntlet to India for the rest of the series.
More to follow...
Deivarayan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo