England captain Joe Root won the toss in his 100th test and elected to bat against Virat Kohli’s India in the first match of the four-test series in Chennai on Friday.
“We’re going to try and get the best of this wicket,” Root said of his decision at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
“I think it (pitch) will deteriorate .. and obviously take spin later on so hopefully we can make the most of it in the first innings, make a really big score and try and lead the game.”
Veteran seamer James Anderson was preferred to Stuart Broad while all-rounder Moeen Ali could not break into the playing XI.
Kohli, who missed the last three tests in Australia to attend the birth of his daughter, said he too would have preferred to bat first.
“Good cricketing wicket, we’d have liked to bat first as well,” he said.
India have also recalled fit-again seamer Ishant Sharma and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem.
Both teams suffered injury setbacks ahead of the match with India’s left-arm Axar Patel ruled out of the opener with knee injury earlier on Friday.
England’s top order batsman Zak Crawley was ruled out of the first two tests on Thursday after slipping on the dressing room floor and hurting his wrist.
Teams:
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Shahbaz Nadeem
England: Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Dan Lawrence, Joe Root (captain), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Dom Bess, Jofra Archer, Jack Leach, James Anderson.
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