England were robbed of the chance to chase as the first match of the T20 series against India was washed out in Durham.
Just two days after Ben Stokes’ dramatic international retirement at Trent Bridge, Harry Brook – his potential replacement as Test skipper – was in charge of bringing some order to England’s chaotic summer.
In the end, he was forced to settle on a soggy stalemate as rain fell continuously through the first innings, which saw India post a competitive 189 for seven, then worsened before the hosts had a chance to respond.
Stokes’ absence leaves another vacancy for an all-rounder as a well as a skipper in the Test side, with Sam Curran one of the possible options for the former. Despite only recently returning to bowling, he gave a good account of his left-arm seamers, pinning the dangerous Abishek Sharma for 59 while in full flow.
He should have repeated the trick by dismissing Shivam Dube at the death, but Jos Buttler’s glovework let him down in the drizzle. Curran was hit for six two balls later to rub salt into the wounds, but figures of one for 25 from three overs of brave variations will do him no harm.
England started with nine of the players who lost to the same opponents in the T20 World Cup semi-final in March, with the recalled Saqib Mahmood picking up three for 33 as he filled in for the rested Jofra Archer.
India overlooked 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi once again but his time could be coming, with Sanju Samson following two cheap dismissals against Ireland by cutting Mahmood’s fourth ball to point with just one to his name. It took an excellent dive and catch from Tom Banton to complete the dismissal, but the Somerset man was up to the task.
Two balls later another piece of sharp fielding got England another, Brook more alert than Ishan Kishan as India’s number three set off for a quick single before changing his mind.
Abishek took it on himself to flip the momentum, kickstarting the innings by pumping Liam Dawson for six over cover before turning his fire on Mahmood, whose second over leaked 21.
With three consecutive boundaries off Luke Wood, the Punjabi batter raced to 50 off just 20 balls and was threatening to go big when he thumped Will Jacks for his fourth six at the end of the eighth over. Two balls later, he was gone.
After one loosener, Curran served up a back-of-the-hand leg-cutter, nipping past the bat and winning an lbw on review.
Shreyas Iyer was far from his best, but worked defiantly to keep the scoreboard moving as he anchored the middle overs with a busy half-century.
At 149 for four after 16 overs, both sides had the opportunity to finish strong. India put their foot down by adding another 44 for the loss of three wickets with Shivam Dube their accelerator. He hit two fours and three sixes in a 21-ball flourish which saw him make an unbeaten 42.
Two of his big blows came off Adil Rashid, playing his first competitive game in three months, and his third came immediately after wicketkeeper Buttler misread the flight of a skier, denying Curran his second scalp in the final over.
Iyer failed to cash in, lbw to Mahmood for a workmanlike 68 after being rapped clean in front, while Harshit Rana was stumped charging Rashid.
That was as far as it went as the rain continued, leaving four games to play starting at Old Trafford on Saturday.
