India vs England, 1st Test: Joe Root wins toss, elects to bat; Nadeem, Sundar included, Kuldeep ignored

Chennai, February 5: England captain Joe Root has won the toss and elected to bat first in the opening Test match against India on Friday (February 5) here at MA Chidambaram Stadium. In a surprise pick leg-spinner, Shahbaz Nadeem was picked up in India's playing eleven as Kuldeep Yadav was once again neglected.

Earlier in the day, India all-rounder Axar Patel was ruled out of the opening game due to a knee injury. A BCCI media communique stated that the 27-year-old Gujarat spinner complained of pain in his left knee during the team's optional practice session on Thursday (February 4). The team management called Shahbaz Nadeem and Rahul Chahar in as his replacement. Both Nadeem and Chahar have been training with the team as part of the standby group of players.

After winning the toss, Joe Root said: "We are going to bat first. Try and get the best of this wicket with the bat, make a good first innings score and try and take the team forward. I do enjoy playing cricket in India. Looking forward to a great series. We have to play at our best and we are very confident. Let me try to get this right. From the last game Crawley, Wood, Curran, Jonny... are missing. Archer, Stokes, Burns are in."

India captain Virat Kohli said he too would have liked to bat first had he won the toss. "Would have batted first as well. It was an amazing phase for us, having a child is an amazing feeling and combined with the way the team played in Australia. We are not thinking about the Test championship at the moment, just take one game at a time. I come in, Ishant is back. Nadeem plays his second game, Ashwin and Washi, both are starting. Same batting order from the Brisbane Test," said Kohli.

Playing XIs:

England: Rory Burns, Dominic Sibley, Daniel Lawrence, Joe Root(c), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler(w), Dominic Bess, Jofra Archer, Jack Leach, James Anderson.

India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Shahbaz Nadeem.