India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat in the second test against a much-changed England at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium on Saturday.
“It’s a good wicket, I think day one is going to be pretty good for batting and we expect it to slow down and roughen up drastically from day two,” Kohli said at the toss.
India, beaten by 227 runs in the first match of the four-test series, made three changes, dropping Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Nadeem, while resting pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.
All-rounder Axar Patel will make his test debut while left-arm wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav and quick Mohammed Siraj were recalled.
England captain Joe Root said he too would have preferred to bat first.
“But it’s an opportunity for us to get in the game early, taking some early wickets, trying to get ahead of things,” he said.
The tourists made four changes for the match.
With stumper Jos Buttler returning home as part of team policy to keep multi-format players fresh, Ben Foakes takes the wicketkeeper’s gloves.
England also rested seamer James Anderson and dropped off-spinner Dom Bess, while Jofra Archer misses the match with an elbow injury.
Seamer Stuart Broad, spin all-rounder Moeen Ali and quick Olly Stone were drafted in to replace them.
Teams:
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj
England: Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Dan Lawrence, Joe Root (captain), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Ben Foakes (wicketkeeper), Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Olly Stone, Jack Leach.
