Joe Root and Virat Kohli
England Test captain Joe Root opted to bat first in the opening game of the five-Test series against India at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Wednesday. India have left out Ravichandran Ashwin for the opener and picked Shardul Thakur as one of their pacers ahead of Ishant Sharma.
India also picked KL Rahul as their opener alongside Rohit Sharma after Mayank Agarwal was ruled out of the game following a concussion.
Last time England chose to bowl first here, and we would have wanted to bat first as well. We would look to get in with the ball in the first session, and a few early breakthroughs will be handy. There is a bit of a change up top, KL Rahul comes in. Our bowling combination is: Bumrah, Shami, Thakur, Siraj and Jadeja as the spinner. You could call it an accumulation of all the hardwork we have put in over the years. The opportunity to win in England and Australia in the same year is rare. To get opportunities in such times to play and play in front of crowds as well, we are grateful," said Kohli.
England, on the other hand, picked Jonny Bairstow and Sam Curran while Jack Leach missed out.
"We're going to bat first. It looks like a reasonable wicket, a little bit of movement. If we get off to a good start in the first hour, we could capitalize. Always exciting to play a big series like this. And hopefully we could perform really well. Jonny Bairstow comes back, Sam Curram comes in as well. It has been so long since we last played. Jack Leach unfortunately misses out; a very tough decision. You've got to pick the best team to pick 20 wickets. As you progress as a Test player, there comes the responsibility and there is an opportunity for the guys to take what Ben Stokes has left in his absence," said Root.
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj
England (Playing XI): Rory Burns, Dominic Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Root(c), Jonny Bairstow, Daniel Lawrence, Jos Buttler(w), Sam Curran, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
