Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bowl first in the first Test between India and England at Headingley, Leeds. Both the captains wanted to bowl first but Gill could not call it correctly at the toss and thus India will have to bat first in the first match of the five-Test series. Both the captains expected the wicket to be good and sounded confident at the toss. India are being led for the first time in Tests by Gill who has earlier led in T20Is and in IPL.
For India, Sai Sudharsan made his Test debut while Karun Nair came back into the side after eight years.
Let us check out what Gill and Stokes, the two captains said at the toss ahead of the start of the first Test where England will be bowling first.
Shubman Gill at toss
"Would've bowled first as well, might be a bit tough in the first session but it should be good to bat on later. Sun is out, should be a good batting deck for us. Preperation has been amazing, we played a practice game in Beckenham, lads are feeling great. Sai makes his debut, Karun comes in. Sai will bat at three."
Ben Stokes at toss
"We'll bowl. Headingley is a very good cricket wicket, we've had some really good games here. Want to try and use the early conditions. Been a long time coming, bit strange that this is just the second series but we're ready. It's been mixed, some lads have played county cricket, we've had three days of really good cricket. Usual suspects in the top seven, Woakes, Brydon, Bashir, Tongue and myself make up the bowling."
India Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(wk), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
England Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
The two teams are playing for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy which was unveiled on the eve of the first Test by James Anderson and Sachin Tendulkar.
