Indian Test cricket enters a new era as Shubman Gill leads the team in the five-match Test series against England, with the opening game kicking off on June 20. Gill took over the reins from Rohit Sharma as India gets their campaign underway in the new World Test Championship, with the opening game at Leeds.
England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bowl first at Headingley, doing what has been favourable: teams bowling first have won each of the last six Test matches at the venue.
Meanwhile, India took the field without some of its famous players. For the first time after nearly 14 years, none of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara are not part of India's Playing XI in Test cricket.
The last time that India played without the famous quintet was during the Oval Test against England in August 2011.
Sai Sudharsan makes debut, India go with four pacers
Meanwhile, the highly-rated Sai Sudharsan has made his Test debut and will bat at No.3, Gill confirmed. In a major development and relief for the cricket pundits, the Indian team is going with four pacers, with Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur carrying the pace line along with Ravindra Jadeja, the sole spin option.
"We'll bowl. Headingley is a very good cricket wicket. We've had some really good games here. Want to try and use the early conditions. Been a long time coming, bit strange that this is just the second series but we're ready. It's been mixed, some lads have played county cricket, and we've had three days of really good cricket. Usual suspects in the top seven, Woakes, Brydon, Bashir, Tongue and myself make up the bowling," England captain Ben Stokes said at the toss.
"Would've bowled first as well, might be a bit tough in the first session, but it should be good to bat on later. The sun is out, should be a good batting deck for us. Preparation has been amazing, we played a practice game in Beckenham, lads are feeling great. Sai makes his debut, and Karun comes in. Sai will bat at three," India skipper Gill said.