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BSP-17
CRICKET-ENG-IND-TOSS,TEAM-UPDATE
England bat against India in first Test
BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom, Aug 1, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – England captain Joe
Root won the toss and elected to bat against India in the first of a five-
Test series at Edgbaston on Wednesday.
Root, in what was England’s 1,000th Test match, decided to bat on what
looked like a typically good, straw-coloured pitch as the initially overcast
skies above the Birmingham ground started to brighten up.
England had confirmed their team on Tuesday, with leg-spinner Adil Rashid
selected as the lone specialist slow bowler despite not playing County
Championship cricket for Yorkshire this season.
Rashid had been recalled on the strength of his form in limited overs
internationals for what was the 11th Test of his career but first in England.
“There is a little bit of cloud cover but it looks like that cloud will
burn off,” said Root at the toss. “We have done some good preparation and are
quite confident. We are in a good place and now it is about delivering.”
India, top of the Test rankings to England’s fifth, retained struggling
opener Shikhar Dhawan, who got a pair in last week’s warm-up match against
Essex, but there was no place in the side for fellow batsman Cheteshwar
Pujara, who had gone nine Test innings without a century and averaged only
14.33 in 12 Championship innings for Yorkshire this season.
Experienced off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the lone specialist slow
bowler in India’s line-up, with left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who
caused England problems during the preceding white-ball series, omitted.
India captain Virat Kohli insisted he was not unhappy with the result of
the toss, saying: “We would have bowled first.
“Today is going to be overcast, so we wanted to get maximum out of the new
ball and get into their top order. We have the bowlers to get into their
batting line-up.”
India have won just three Test series in England, the last in 2007, and
Kohli added: “It’s going to be a well-fought Test match — and series.
“The results haven’t gone our way before, but we’re not a team that carries
baggage.”
Teams
England: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (capt), Dawid Malan,
Jonny Bairstow (wkt), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Sam Curram, Adil Rashid,
Stuart Broad, James Anderson
India: Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya
Rahane, Dinesh Karthik (wkt), Hardik Pandya, Ravichndran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav,
Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma
Umpires: Aleem Dar (PAK), Chris Gaffaney (NZL)
TV umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA)
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)
BSS/AFP/ARS/1641 hrs