England vs India, First T20I: Match in Pictures

India kicked off their tour to England in the best possible way, beating the hosts by eight wickets in the first of the three T20I matches at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

Opting to bowl first, the Men In Blue restricted the hosts to 159 for 8 in their 20 overs on the back of a maiden five-wicket haul for Kuldeep Yadav, who took figures of 5 for 24 to derail the English innings.

Jos Buttler proved to be England's best batsman on the day, making a 46-ball 69 even as the others fell to the guile of Kuldeep at the other end. A late cameo of 29 runs from 15 balls from David Willey propelled England to a score they would have been very disappointed to reach after the start they got.

Then in the chase, Shikhar Dhawan fell early, but KL Rahul stepped up to smash his second hundred in this format, finishing on exactly 100 not out to help the visitors race away to a comfortable win.

The two teams meet again on Thursday for the second game in Cardiff and England certainly have a lot of thinking to do before that game on how to tackle the chinaman in a better fashion than what they did in the first game.

Here are the best images from the game:

1. Virat Kohli called it right at the toss and opted to bowl first. At the end of the first 5 overs, it did not seem the best decision, but his bowlers pulled things back brilliantly in the latter half of the innings.

2. The teams walked out to a packed house cheering them on in the stands. Despite the football going on simultaneously, 23,000 fans turned up for the game at Manchester and while their team did lose the game, even they might have appreciated the brilliance of KL Rahul with the bat in hand.

3. Jason Roy began proceedings in blazing fashion, helping his side reach the half-century in the first quarter of the innings.

4. But Umesh Yadav had the final laugh as he dismissed the hard-hitting opener to open the floodgates for his side, much to the delight of the crowd in the stands.

5. Once Umesh Yadav got that wicket, it was time for the Kuldeep Yadav show. The left-arm chinaman picked up career-best figures of 5 for 24 in his 4 overs, including three wickets in one over, to dismantle the English batting line-up.

6. Jos Buttler proved to be England's best batsman on the day, scoring a 46-ball 69 that helped England reach 159 for 8 which proved to be way less than what they would have hoped to reach at 50 for 1 in 5 overs.

7. With the bat, it proved to a KL Rahul show as the right-hander hammered the English bowlers to all corners of the ground, reaching the second T20I hundred of his career.

8. Giving him company at the other end was Rohit Sharma, who was more than happy to let Rahul hog the strike. He was eventually out for 29.

9. Virat Kohli took the catch that helped Kuldeep pick up his fifth wicket of the day.

10. And later in the day, walked out to bat with the match almost in the bag and finished it with a six, en route to reaching 2000 runs in the shortest format of the game

But the image of the day has to be the KL Rahul celebration as soon as he got his second T20I century.

At first, it looked fairly straightforward

But then came the real deal.

KL Rahul certainly has plenty of swagger