ENG vs IND Prediction, 1st Test, Match Winner, Team, Playing XI and Pitch Report

England will lock horns with India in the first Test of the five-match series at Headingley, Leeds, starting on June 20.

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England, led by Ben Stokes, has already revealed their playing XI. Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley continue to open the innings, with Ollie Pope continuing his No.3 spot. Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse are expected to share the new ball bowling duties.

On the other hand, this will be the first series without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for Team India. The Shubman Gill-led side has enough talent in both batting and bowling line-ups. With Jasprit Bumrah available for selection, this contest is expected to be an interesting one.

ENG vs IND, 1st Test Match Details

Match: England vs India, 1st Test

Time & Date: 3:30 PM IST, June 20 to June 24

Venue: Headingley, Leeds

ENG vs IND, 1st Test Pitch Report

The Headingley surface will give a lot of assistance to new ball bowlers initially in the innings. Batters need to toil hard to adjust to the conditions quickly before it gets too late. As the innings progress to the second day, we can expect batting to become a bit easier.

ENG vs IND, 1st Test Probable XIs

England (Playing XI)

Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, ⁠Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.

India

Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.

ENG vs IND, 1st Test Match Winner Prediction

Match Winner: England

India is coming into this series in the transitional phase after Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s retirements. Interestingly, though there is a bit of batting depth, we can expect them to be tested properly in English conditions.

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Despite the English bowling line-up being inexperienced, their Bazball batting approach has reaped benefits for them at home. That said, we can expect the English side, led by Ben Stokes, to start off the Test series on a winning note.

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