The series will commence on June 20.
England are set to host India for a long five-match Test series, starting on June 20, in Leeds. The hosts are suffering from a few injury concerns in their camp ahead of the home series. On the other hand, the visitors are going to begin a new era in red-ball cricket under the young captain Shubman Gill. After the sudden Test retirements of the stalwarts like Ravichandran Ashwin, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli, this will be the first assignment of a completely new and young team on English soil. This series will also kick off the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle 2025-27 for both teams.
The veteran Indian batters Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have also not been added to the squad. Moreover, Gill and Co. will have to fill in for the prime pacer Jasprit Bumrah as he will feature in only three out of the five matches to manage his workload. Earlier, the 31-year-old had sustained a back injury in the fifth Border-Gavaskar Test 2024-25, which sidelined him from being in action for a few months.
India last won a Test series in England in 2007. Since then, they have lost three back-to-back England tours by 4-0, 3-1, and 4-1. However, a spirited comeback from the bowling unit helped them win the second and fourth Test during the latest England tour in 2022. Eventually, India levelled the five-match series 2-2 under the leadership of Kohli.
England: Ben Stokes (C), Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Zak Crawley, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Chris Woakes, Ollie Pope (WK), Jamie Smith (WK), Samuel James Cook, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir, Josh Tongue, and Jamie Overton.
India: Shubman Gill (C), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sai Sudharsan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Rishabh Pant (WK), KL Rahul (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, and Kuldeep Yadav.
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The first Test match between England and India will start at 3:30 PM IST, after the coin toss at 3:00 PM IST.
The England vs India 1st Test live streaming will be available on JioHotstar.
The viewers can also watch the England vs India 1st Test live telecast on the Sony Sports Network and DD Sports on the Free Dish.
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