Preview: India, England set to resume rivalry
India and England are set to resume rivalry as the first of the five-match Test series will commence from Wednesday (August 1) at Edgbaston, which is being considered as a stronghold of the home team. At this venue, India are yet to win a single Test match out of their previous six outings. However, this time the Virat Kohli-led team, which is also the ranked the No. 1 Test side in the ICC rankings are capable of rewriting the record books.
On the eve of the Test match, which is also England's 1000th one, the hosts have announced the XI. As expected they have opted for one spinner, leggie Adil Rashid, on this Edgbaston track, which is primarily expected to help the seam bowlers. With the likes of Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Sam Curran and Ben Stokes; one believes Root's team have enough firepower to bowl India out twice.
Their batting too has the likes of Alastair Cook, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes along with skipper Root to look after the proceedings. Furthermore, youngsters like Keaton Jennings and Dawid Malan will look to impress. Overall the England squad seems like a balanced unit.
India on the other hand, are yet to fix their team combination. As captain, Kohli always insists on five bowlers, which will make Hardik Pandya a definite starter. It will be interesting to notice whether the team management picks both Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav or they go for one extra seamer in place of a tweaker.
In batting, there are a few areas in which the visitors are yet to take a decision. At this point, it seems, India will go ahead with their tried and tested opening combination of Murli Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan. And at No.3, either Cheteshwar Pujara or KL Rahul will feature.
Toss will be a tricky factor here. The wicket was under the cover for the last few days and there is a certain amount of moisture expected on the track. Nevertheless, irrespective of the uncertainty surrounding the wicket, batting first is likely to be the ideal decision here.
England Playing XI:
Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (C), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (WK), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Stuart Broad, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, James Anderson.
India Squad:
Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Karun Nair, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur.
Match starts: 11 AM local time
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