Toss India won the toss and chose to bowl vs England
India have responded to their crushing defeat in Friday's opening T20I by turning to the Mumbai Indians for reinforcements, with the two batting stars of last year's IPL triumph being handed their India debuts.
Ishan Kishan will open the batting in place of Shikhar Dhawan and in the continued absence of his Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma, who is being rested for the first two games, while Suryakumar Yadav has been included to shore up the middle order in place of the star of the recent Test series, Axar Patel, who misses out.
The pair played major roles in the Mumbai Indians' fifth IPL title back in November last year, and step into an Indian batting line-up that struggled to make headway against an aggressive England attack in an eight-wicket defeat in the opening fixture.
In 13 innings in the UAE at the last IPL, Kishan finished as the Mumbai Indians' leading run-scorer, with 516 runs at an average of 57.33 and a strike rate of 145.76, and was also the tournament's leading six-hitter with 30. Yadav, meanwhile, made 480 runs in 15 innings (average 40.00, strike rate 145.01), with a consistently flamboyant approach to his batting at the top of the order.
Neither will be in action straightaway, however, after Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bowl first on a surface that he anticipates may once again be a touch up and-down, and with the dew factor in the second innings likely to hamper the fielding side.
"As much as we want to try things, we want to get a result as well," Kohli said at the toss. "These guys [the two debutants] are ready, they've done so well in the IPL against world-class bowlers already. That's the advantage of dealing with youth: You don't really need to say much to them, just unleash them on the field and back them."
England have made one enforced change of their own, with Mark Wood "not pulling up well" according to his captain, Eoin Morgan, after a thrillingly display in the opening game in which his average speed was in excess of 91mph. Wood was later confirmed by the England management to have sustained a bruised left heel.
Tom Curran has been included in Wood's place - which offers Morgan a very different style of seam bowler. Curran's strength tends to come at the death, which may have an impact on how he shuffles his resources in the earlier part of the innings. Adil Rashid, still England's solitary spinner, was particularly impressive with the new ball in the first match, removing Kohli for a duck, but may be required to play more of a traditional mid-innings role.
"We want to be as flexible as possible," Morgan said. "When you play away from home, you need to have as many options as possible.
"Statistically there is an advantage in chasing in T20 cricket. There is a bit of dew that comes in here, but it comes very early on. I don't think it'll be a massively high-scoring game, but a good contest. Great experience for us playing in India before the World Cup."
India: 1 Ishan Kishan, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Shreyas Iyer, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Washington Sundar, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Jonny Bairstow, 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Eoin Morgan (capt), 7 Sam Curran, 8 Tom Curran, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Chris Jordan, 11 Adil Rashid
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @miller_cricket