Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli's mediocre track record with toss ended on Wednesday as the Indian skipper won his first toss as a captain against England. The Indian skipper elected to bat first in the third Test against England at Headingley, Leeds.
Previously, Kohli had lost the toss in each of his eight Tests as the India captain in England. India also stuck to the same "template" of four fast bowlers and one spinner, sidelining R Ashwin from the set-up and keeping Ravindra Jadeja in the mix.
"It's a surprise I've won (the toss). We're batting first. Looks firm and without grass and runs on the board will set this up. We're going in with the same XI. We thought about getting Ashwin in, and the pressure of the extra seamer in these conditions is crucial. Jadeja will bowl a lot more overs because the conditions are suited to him," said Kohli.
While the hosts have been struggling on multiple fronts, Kohli's men have taken a 1-0 lead in the five-Test series. The first one at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, was drawn while the visitors won the second at Lord's, London, by 151 runs.
"About my batting, I'll try to make an impact for the team with the bat. I believe in my process and sometimes it doesn't really come off on the field, but I'm more concerned about how much of an impact I have on the team's performance," he further said.
The Indian camp is returning to the Headingley after 19 long years, having played at the venue back in 2002 when they registered a comprehensive win by an innings and 46 runs.
The top-scorer for England in all four innings so far -- Root -- will be looking to steady the batting set-up yet again. There have been six matches between the two sides at the venue with England winning three and India two.
England made two changes to their playing XI as they included Dawid Malan in place of Dom Sibley and Craig Overton replaced Mark Wood.
"There's a bit of cloud cover and it's tacky, and it'll get better and better for batting eventually. Quite happy to lose the toss. Malan comes in for Sibley and Overton comes in for Wood. Overton was picked on the conditions. Saqib was great in the white-ball format, but Overton continuously performs in county cricket so we've picked him, even though it was a difficult choice to make," said Root.
England (Playing XI): Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan, Joe Root(c), Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler(w), Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Craig Overton, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
