England chooses to bowl first against India in test series opener at Headingley

By Canadian Press on June 20, 2025.

LEEDS, England (AP) — England chose to bowl first against India in the test series opener at Headingley on Friday.

Both teams would have picked to field first. The last six test winners in Leeds bowled first.

The pitch has a green tinge and the weather is sunny and humid, the temperature topping out at 29 degrees on days one and two.

India, under new skipper Shubman Gill, has chosen to debut top-order batter Sai Sudharsan, give middle-order bat Karun Nair his first test in eight years. Shardul Thakur, who hasn’t played a test since December 2023, was preferred to Nitish Kumar Reddy as the fast bowling allrounder and Prasidh Krishna headed off uncapped Arshdeep Singh as the third seamer.

England named its team on Thursday, choosing at No. 3 in the batting order vice captain Ollie Pope over Jacob Bethell.

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Lineups:

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Bryson Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.

India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Lokesh Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant, Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

The Associated Press