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Updated: Feb 8, 2026, 9:06 AM (17 mins ago)•Published Feb 8, 2026, 6:47 AM
ENG vs NEP live, T20 World Cup 2026 - England bat first on used pitch
By Matt RollerEngland choose to bat
England won the toss and chose to bat first vs Nepal
Rohit Paudel warned Harry Brook that a used pitch at Wankhede Stadium could play into his team’s hands as Nepal were asked to bowl first in their first-ever international match against England.
Sunday afternoon’s game will be played on the same strip where India’s powerhouse batting line-up eked out 161 for 9 against the United States on Saturday night. Brook won the toss and chose to bat first with conditions in mind, but Paudel said that Nepal’s players “love slow tracks” and that they hoped the surface would suit them.
“We love slow tracks, and it’s a used wicket so I think it will spin a little bit,” Paudel said. “I think, if that happens, it will help our team… To be honest, we would have bowled first. Looking at the conditions, I think chasing is a good option.”
England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Tom Banton, 5 Harry Brook (capt), 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Luke Wood.
Nepal: 1 Aasif Sheikh (wk), 2 Kushal Bhurtel, 3 Rohit Paudel (capt), 4 Dipendra Airee, 5 Aarif Sheikh, 6 Lokesh Bam, 7 Gulsan Jha, 8 Karan KC, 9 Sher Malla, 10 Nandan Yadav, 11 Sandeep Lamichhane.
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Nepal fans dominate Wankhede
There’s a real buzz and a LOT of Nepal fans in Mumbai today. This is the famous Marine Drive an hour before the start of their T20 World Cup match v England… #bbccricket pic.twitter.com/3TvxfRuKKq
— Matthew Henry (@MattyHenry19) February 8, 2026
Buttler's time to shine?
A solid tournament could see Buttler take the lead pic.twitter.com/kSgsKWr4KX
— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) February 6, 2026
A penny for Jos Buttler's thoughts as he embarks on his seventh T20 World Cup campaign. At the age of 35, and just days after becoming the most-capped cricketer in England's history, "Grandpa" (as he is now known by his Gen Z team-mates) is locked and loaded for what could well be his last meaningful shot at an ICC global trophy.
That nickname may predate England's tour of New Zealand in October, but you can imagine Buttler taking a somewhat askance view of the antics that unfolded on that infamous trip. He's clearly not ready for his metaphorical pipe and slippers just yet, but nor is it likely that many of his 403-and-counting England appearances have been prefaced by confrontations with nightclub bouncers.
And yet, despite the swirl of controversy that continues to stalk his successor, Harry Brook, England's T20 World Cup squad has arrived in India in better-than-average shape. Or, perhaps, it is because of that controversy, for England would hardly be the first sports team in history to hunker down in the eye of the storm, and use that howl of external outrage to cultivate an us-against-the-world mentality.
Certainly, blocking out the noise has been a central tenet of Brendon McCullum's coaching philosophy throughout his three-and-a-half years in the England set-up, and to judge by his bullish comments in Pallekele this week, he's still utterly committed to the messaging and methods that fuelled the Bazball revolution.
All of which leaves Buttler, a grandee of England's original white-ball revolution, in a fascinating - and potentially campaign-defining - position. Not only is he one of the few men in this set-up who can truly claim to have seen it all before, he is also perhaps the most mindset-driven player of his generation, and therefore, the very best means to determine whether that fabled Baz effect has anything left to offer after such a bruising winter.
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Ian Harvey interview
Ian Harvey was a pioneer in T20 cricket, scoring the format's first-ever hundred, bowling bewitching slower balls, and winning several titles.
Long before T20 globe-trotting became a thing, the Australia allrounder played the shortest format in England, South Africa, Zimbabwe and India.
Harvey, who is now with Nepal as their bowling coach, spoke to Alagappan and Deivarayan Muthu in Chennai about his bag of variations, Australia's famous winning culture, his friend Andrew Symonds, and Nepal's wide talent pool among other things in the lead-up to the 2026 World Cup.
Karan KC fulfils his Wankhede dream
For a better part of his early years as a professional cricketer, Karan KC was a regular visitor to Mumbai. He would train every summer at an academy run by Umesh Patwal. Yet, one box on his wish list remained unticked: playing at the Wankhede Stadium.
On Sunday, when Karan walks out at the Wankhede to play for Nepal in their T20 World Cup 2026 opener against England, that long-standing dream will finally be realised. With Nepal scheduled to play all their group fixtures at the same venue, there's also the chance of creating some memories at the iconic ground.
"I've roamed around a lot in Mumbai, taking autos and local trains from Kandivali [where he stayed]," Karan told ESPNcricinfo. "But could never get inside Wankhede. During one of my first trips, I really wanted to see the ground. So we took a local train to Churchgate. Just standing outside, getting that close to the ground, was quite amazing. Now to imagine we'll be playing there, it's very exciting."
Nepal's obsession
Nepal is cricket crazy. The national team has drawn incredible crowds in recent years, as have matches in the Nepal Premier League. ESPNcricinfo's Shashank Kishore went to see it for himself, and spoke to former captain Paras Khadka about the nation's obsession.
Looking ahead to the World Cup, Khadka has already been flooded with ticket requests. "I can't oblige them all," he says, smiling. "In the US in 2024, when we played Netherlands in Dallas, it felt like playing in Kathmandu. Out of 8000 people, maybe 50 were Dutch. That really took the ICC and the global cricket community by surprise.
"It showed what Nepal cricket represents. Whenever we play at home, stadiums are jam-packed. This being our third World Cup, and India being so close to Nepal, easy to travel [to], familiar language, food and culture, we expect strong crowd support. We want to show our presence not just on the field but off it as well."
Brook draws line under Wellington
As the scrutiny about his actions on the night of October 31 in Wellington continues, England white-ball captain Harry Brook admitted on Saturday that it had "not been a very nice time" for him - and, at times, was a "pretty horrendous" month.
Brook said that the incident, first reported by the Telegraph on the last day of the Ashes in January, has taught him that as a captain, he cannot take responsibility "lightly" and that he has to be switched on all the time.
"It has been pretty horrendous, to be honest, but that is part of it," Brook said in Mumbai on Saturday. "It has just been tough. It's not been a very nice time of my life, to be honest. It has just not been easy."
Brook said that he would reflect on what he had learned from the incident after the T20 World Cup.
New horizons
17 Nepal will become the 17th different team to play against England in men's T20Is. They played four new opponents at the 2024 T20 World Cup: Namibia, Oman, Scotland and the United States.
England's maiden encounter with Nepal
In-form England wary of slip-ups
Ten years on from their improbable run to the World T20 final in Kolkata, England return to India with quiet expectation, writes Andrew Miller. While controversy swirls around their captain, Harry Brook, and what he did and did not get up to outside a nightclub on Halloween, the team that he oversees has found some stillness in the eye of the storm. With 10 wins in their last 11 completed T20Is, they are as ready as they can be for the challenge that lies ahead.
So too, for that matter, are their opening-night opponents. Eighteen months ago in St Vincent, Nepal came within a whisker of a stunning upset against the eventual World Cup finalists, South Africa. They return to the T20 World Cup stage with a battle-hardened unit, forewarned of the pressures but with proof of their worthiness, and with two successful seasons of the Nepal Premier League under their belts to rehearse those big-match moments.
Like England, they arrive on an impressive run of recent form, albeit six wins out of six against the likes of Kuwait, Japan and Qatar in September's qualifying tournament isn't exactly apples and pears. Nevertheless, they are here on merit, and very much on the rise, with a young, established captain in Rohit Paudel, and an attacking array of bowlers including the nippy Karan KC. A maiden international against England will be a proud moment in their development, but there's no reason to believe they should be daunted.
England have endured enough Associate hiccups down the years to take nothing for granted. But their confidence for this campaign won't simply be derived from their run of recent form. Their range of contributors has arguably been the most heartening aspect, with their spinners finding form and impact throughout the Sri Lanka series, including the back-up offerings of Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell, while their batting has shown depth, power and versatility ever since the summer, when - against South Africa at Old Trafford - they recorded the first 300-plus total in a Full Members' T20I.
Form guide:
England: WWWWW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
Nepal: WWWWW
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