England have won the toss and opted to bat first against India at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Uppal in Hyderabad. The visitors have already announced their playing XI, fielding three spinners and one fast bowler with Tom Hartley set for his Test debut in the opening match. On the other hand, India have benched Kuldeep Yadav and gone ahead with the trio of Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.The hosts will miss the services of star batter Virat Kohli has pulled off citing personal reasons.
The tourists opted for speedster Mark Wood ahead of veteran quick James Anderson. At the same time, Ollie Pope, Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed and Jack Leach returned to the team after not being part of the team’s last Test against Australia at The Oval last summer. England, in 2012, were the last team to register a Test series win in India. Alastair Cook & Kevin Pietersen batted brilliantly and the England spin duo of Graeme Swann & Monty Panesar outbowled the Indian spinners to register a famous come-from-behind series win. Joe Root and Ravindra Jadeja made their debuts in that series and they've come a long way. Root is currently the second highest run-getter for England in Tests and he has an impressive record against India. He also has a Test average of 50.10 in India. Being England's best player of spin, the No. 4 has a big role to play in the series. India haven't lost a home Test series for more than 11 years. In fact, they've lost just three Tests (two vs Australia and one vs England) in India during that period.
