The England challenge awaits a young Indian team, who would begin a new journey in the new World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle at Headingley, Leeds from Friday. English weather can change in a blink of an eye but it has been reported that it is going to stay sunny for most of the opening Test, which would bring respite for the batters, who have endured a tough time in the red-ball version in recent times.
However, on Thursday, a green pitch was palpable in Leeds and it would be interesting to note the final pitch that the curator dishes out for both teams.
The first half of the series could be a battle between India’s inexperienced batting line-up vs England’s insipid fast bowling battery and the one who wins this contest, will hold the advantage.
Stats Preview:
England opener Ben Duckett needs 90 runs to complete the 2500-run mark in Test cricket.
Ollie Pope needs 13 fours to complete 400 boundaries in the red-ball version.
England veteran batter Joe Root needs three boundaries to complete 1400 fours in Test cricket. The right-hander also needs five sixes to reach 50 maximums in the oldest format.
Chris Woakes needs 30 runs to complete 2000 runs in the multi-day format.
Indian captain Shubman Gill needs 107 runs to complete 2000 runs in Test cricket.
India’s vice-captain Rishabh Pant needs 52 runs to reach the 3000-run mark in the Test format.
India Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana
England Squad: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir, Jamie Overton, Samuel James Cook, Jacob Bethell
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