By: Tarish Bhatt
England captain Alastair Cook managed to win the first battle, hopefully not the last, by guessing the toss right in Rajkot. He elected to bat first on a track, which is not looking alarming atleast for the first session.
The visitors gave debut to opener Haseeb Hameed and opted to field three spinners and as many seamers. Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Zafar Ansari are England’s spinners. Meanwhile, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes will take care of the fast-bowling department.
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India vs England 1st Test will start at 9:30 am IST. The match will be available live on Star Sports network. Viewers can watch the live streaming of the match HERE. 5th ODI Live Scores are available HERE and HERE.
“A traditional Indian wicket,” the England captain said at the toss. “First innings will be crucial. We’re pretty inexperienced, but that’s what can be exciting about our side.”
Meanwhile, the Indian captain Virat Kohli lost the toss, but he certainly has an upper hand on a pitch that will turn sooner than later. He went back to his five-bowler theory, after using four bowlers against New Zealand.
“Not a bad thing. Looking forward to getting a few gains in the first session,” Kohli said. “We’ve been playing good cricket. England have done well in India, we don’t take any side for granted.”
India Playing XI: Murali Vijay, Gautam Gambhir, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Amit Mishra, Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav.
England Playing XI: Alastair Cook (c), Haseeb Hameed, Joe Root, Ben Duckett, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Zafar Ansari and Stuart Broad.
