England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to field first at Headingley, Leeds on Friday, June 20. Stokes suggested that Headingley is always a good cricket wicket and was hoping to use the early assistance for the bowlers, with the pitch expected to get better later on to bat. Indian skipper Shubman Gill also wanted to bowl first, using the conditions with the ball, but didn't mind batting, given that the sun was out and the conditions were dry in Leeds.
In the lead-up to the series, Gill mentioned that getting the Test captaincy has been a huge honour and now that India are batting first, it will be key for the new No 4 for the visitors to forget that he is the captain while batting and wipe out the memory of his past performances in red-ball cricket in the country. Gill confirmed that Sai Sudharsan was making his debut and hence became the 317th cricketer to play Test matches for India. Sudharsan will be batting at No 3, while Shardul Thakur returned to India's line-up for the first time since the Centurion Test at the end of 2023
The bowling combination was on the expected lines for India with Prasidh Krishna being the third pacer and Ravindra Jadeja at No 7. The Headingley Test also marked the return of Karun Nair to the Indian side after a long wait of eight years. India have been thrown into the deep end instantly and the challenge for the batters will be to swim and float and give it back to the hosts
England had announced their playing XI a couple of days ago already, with Brydon Carse and Chris Woakes returning to the side. Josh Tongue was retained from the team that played against Zimbabwe last month with Gus Atkinson being ruled out injured. The batting line-up stayed the same as Ollie Pope retained his No 3 spot, ahead of Jacob Bethell.
Playing XIs
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
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