India gave Test debutant B Sai Sudharsan the honor as England captain Joe Root won the toss and decided to bowl first in the first match of the five-Test Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series at Headingley on Friday. The match also marks the start of a new World Test Championship cycle for both teams.
Sudharsan's state of Tamil Nadu and Surrey in the County Championship is where he has also played, and he was given his first Test cap on a day that had historic significance—June 20—the day Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly made their debut Test appearances in 1996, and Virat Kohli made his Test debut in 2011.
The 22-year-old becomes India's 317th men's Test cricketer and will bat at the crucial No. 3 spot in Leeds. He was capped by Cheteshwar Pujara, who is Commentator of the commentary panel in England.
Also returning to the frame is Karun Nair, who had last appeared in a Test in March 2017. He will bat at No. 6. In the all-rounder's spot at No. 8, Shardul Thakur was given a chance over Nitish Kumar Reddy. The pace quartet includes Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Prasidh Krishna, while Ravindra Jadeja will be the sole specialist spin-bowling all-rounder, keeping Kuldeep Yadav out of the XI.
This match also marks the beginning of a new chapter in Shubman Gill’s career as he leads India in Test cricket for the first time. “We’d have bowled first as well,” Gill said at the toss. “It has been a dry summer, so although there might be a little bit in it in the first session, it’s going to be a really good batting wicket after that.”
He said, "The sun is out; it appears to be going to be a great batting day for us. Preparation has been incredible. All the boys are in a fantastic space mentally and physically."
England skipper Ben Stokes acknowledged the importance of the series and said that the build-up to the game had been mixed. "Headingley is a very good cricket wicket usually; we've had some fantastic games here in the past and hopefully we can take advantage of the early conditions and get a bit out of it," he said.
“We’re all excited, we’re all ready to go. The preparation has been mixed, to be honest. We’ve had some lads playing county cricket, but we’ve had a really good three days building up to this Test match and everyone is raring to go,” Stokes added.
Playing XIs:
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, B Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (vice-captain & wicketkeeper), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith (wicketkeeper), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
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