Virat Kohli out for a duck as India lose 3 quick wickets in 1st T20I vs England

Virat Kohli was dismissed for a duck after India were put to bat by England in the first Twenty20 International (T20I) in Ahmedabad on Friday.

The Indian team decided to rest their vice-captain Rohit Sharma and in his absence, KL Rahul opened the innings with Shikhar Dhawan. India were off to a poor start as they lost Rahul in the second over of the day. England fast bowler Jofra Archer remove Rahul for a four-ball one and at 2 for 1, Kohli walked in to bat.

England gave away only three runs off the first 14 deliveries they had bowled and that built massive pressure when Kohli came to the crease. Kohli, who was 72 runs away from completing 3,000 T20I runs, failed to get off the mark as he became Adil Rashid's first victim of the day. This was Kohli's second consecutive duck in the ongoing series. In the final Test, which was played at the same venue in Ahmedabad, India batted only once, where Kohli was out for a duck.

Soon after Kohli's departure, India lose Shikhar Dhawan in the fifth over. He went to hit a wide slog off England's fast bowler Mark Wood but ended up getting bowled for a 12-ball four.

The underway five-match T20I series will be treated as a rehearsal for the upcoming T20 World Cup that India are set to host later this year. The last edition of the ICC tournament, which was also hosted by India in 2016, saw the hosts lose in the semi-finals to the eventual champions West Indies. The Caribbean side had defeated the current World No. 1 England in the final at the Eden Gardens.

Earlier, Kohli had admitted that even India would have opted to field had they won the toss. "Probably would have bowled first as well. Dew is going to be a massive factor in the second half. Got to get into the game with the ball and restrict them. We were planning to do things like batting first in these conditions where bowling in the dew becomes a factor. It's a good way to prepare for the World Cup. The next few months will be important from a team environment. Rohit is resting for the first couple of games," said Kohli at the toss on Friday.

India's Playing XI: KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal.

England's Playing XI: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler (wk), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan (c), Ben Stokes, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.