Katherine Sciver-Brunt
Ex-England bowler on BBC Test Match Special

Nat's a bit gutted. She's got a small strain in that abductor area. It was in the field, she rolled badly. It didn't come from sprinting, which would be more difficult to recover from. They said if this was a semi-final of a World Cup she'd be playing.

Sophia Dunkley calmly gets England under way, dabbing a single to deep cover from Amanjot Kaur's first ball.

Image source, Getty Images

Pressure on England's opening partnership this evening but the relative freedom of batting first could be just what they need.

England have been 9-2 and 2-2 in the first two games, and the opening stand has passed 50 just once in their past eight T20s, averaging less than 15.

Danni Wyatt-Hodge has scored just one run from her past four international T20 knocks, too. She strides to the middle with Dunkley amid the extremely unnecessary flames that surround the outfield, when it's been pushing 30 degrees outside all day.

England: Sophia Dunkley, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Alice Capsey, Tammy Beaumont (c), Amy Jones (wk), Paige Scholfield, Sophie Ecclestone, Issy Wong, Charlie Dean, Lauren Filer, Lauren Bell.

India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Amanjot Kaur, Richa Ghosh (wk), Deepti Sharma, Radha Yadav, Arundhati Reddy, Sneh Rana, Sree Charani.

India captain Harmanpreet Kaur: "We'd definitely have batted first.

"Being in the game and being positive, that's worked. That's always given us the result and that's how we're talking in our team meetings, whatever the situation we have to be positive, keep backing ourselves.

"We're very happy everybody is showing up. Today is another day for us to keep doing the right things again.

"We always enjoy playing in England and this is one of our favourite grounds and hopefully we enjoy our cricket tonight.

"We're going with the same 11."

England stand-in captain Tammy Beaumont: "We think it looks a good wicket here so we want to get some runs on the board and then defend.

"Change it up and fully back our girls to come out firing tonight."

On captaining England for the first time: "Feel really honoured to do the job. Slightly difficult circumstances with Nat going down and not knowing when she'll be back. But a real honour and hopefully I lead well."

On a must-win game: "We've wanted challenges in bilateral series for a long time and we're in a challenge. We've got to front up, come out firing and improve every single game. We're doing a lot of work, a lot of talking and tonight hopefully we'll put it into action."

Image source, Getty Images

Change of plan for England, who have bowled first in the previous two outings and conceded 210 and 181.

Tammy Beaumont also confirms a few changes - Alice Capsey moves up to three instead of Nat Sciver-Brunt, Paige Scholfield comes into the middle order, and Charlie Dean and Issy Wong come in for Linsey Smith and Em Arlott respectively.

England are without their skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt tonight as she has a hip niggle, with Tammy Beaumont standing in, so it's going to take something pretty special to turn this series around.

Beaumont top-scored with 54 in the defeat at Bristol, and has vowed that under her leadership, England will come out fighting - you can read more from her here.

Good evening from a sun-drenched Oval, one of the best sights in cricket.

After an action-packed day at the men's Test, it's T20 time for England and India's women - where the tourists could seal the five-match series at the earliest opportunity tonight.