Arshdeep Singh scripted history at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday as he dismissed Phil Salt and Ben Duckett of England to become India's highest wicket-taker in T20Is. Starting the match with 95 wickets in the shortest format, Arshdeep first dismissed Salt on the third ball of the first T20I to equal Yuzvendra Chahal.
The left-arm seamer returned in his second over to take the wicket of Duckett to reach the milestone. Arshdeep completed the feat in his 61st T20I. Bhuvneshwar Kumar (90), Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya (both 89) complete the top five.
If Arshdeep manages to take three more wickets today or during the series, the Punjab pacer will become the first Indian to complete 100 T20I wickets.
Earlier, senior pacer Mohammed Shami surprisingly missed out of the India XI, thus extending the delay in his return to international cricket. India captain Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and opted to bowl first in the opening T20I against England.
Shami last played for India in the ODI World Cup final loss to Australia in November 2023. "A good headache (playing XI selection), we want to stick to our strengths," Yadav said. "We want to bowl first. The wicket looks sticky, there will be dew later on. It will be heavier later on.
India: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (w), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy.
England: Jos Buttler (c), Ben Duckett, Philip Salt (w), Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.
97 - Arshdeep Singh (61 matches)
96 - Yuzvendra Chahal (80)
90 - Bhuvneshwar Kumar (87)
89 - Jasprit Bumrah (70)
89 - Hardik Pandya (110)
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