English skipper Joe Root informed about the return of James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow and Zak Crawley into the team.
Photo: IANS
England on Wednesday elected to bat first in the third and the day-night Test against India at the newly renamed Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera near Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
English skipper Joe Root informed about the return of James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow and Zak Crawley into the team in place of Rory Burns, Dan Lawrence, Moeen Ali and Olly Stone.
It is the first time in the series that the visitors’ attacking line up would see Anderson and Stuart Broad bowling together.
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“Hopefully, we will get a big score like the first Test. Hoping the wicket will dry out as the game goes along. It is certainly harder and seems to swing more compared to the red ball. We are very excited to be here 1-1 and are looking to do well,” said Root.
India captain Virat Kohli, meanwhile, announced two changes to the squad that won the second Test by 317 runs. Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah replaces Mohammed Siraj and all-rounder Washington Sundar comes in place of spinner Kuldeep Yadav.
He said that the hosts would have batted first as well. “We would look to get into the game early on. The practice wickets have been quite spicy,” said Kohli.
“Something that we have enjoyed as a team. Bumrah comes in for Siraj and Washington Sundar comes in for Kuldeep Yadav. We wanted to have a spinning option and Washi provides a lot with the bat as well. And having cushion with the bat helps especially in this situation when we bat second as the game could be evened out after the first innings,” he added.
The third match is the only day-night Test of the four-game series and is being played with the pink ball.
England: Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root (captain), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Ben Foakes (wicketkeeper), Jofra Archer, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma.
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