Sai Sudharsan was handed his India debut during the 1st Test of the five-match series against England at Headingley in Leeds on Friday. The 23-year-old received his Test cap from veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara, who is not part of the squad, ahead of toss on Friday. England won the toss and opted to bowl against India in the series-opener at Headingley. Karun Nair and Shardul Thakur were included in India’s XI, marking returns for both cricketers. Kuldeep Yadav, who has 306 international wickets (56 in Tests, 181 in ODIs and 69 in T20Is), was not included in the playing XI for the Test match.

“We’ll bowl. Headingley is a very good cricket wicket, we’ve had some really good games here. Want to try and use the early conditions. Been a long time coming, bit strange that this is just the second series but we’re ready. It’s been mixed, some lads have played county cricket, we’ve had three days of really good cricket. Usual suspects in the top seven, Woakes, Brydon, Bashir, Tongue and myself make up the bowling,” England captain Ben Stokes said after winning the toss.

India captain Gill admitted he would’ve preferred to bowl as well.a

“Would’ve bowled first as well, might be a bit tough in the first session but it should be good to bat on later. Sun is out, should be a good batting deck for us. Preperation has been amazing, we played a practice game in Beckenham, lads are feeling great. Sai makes his debut, Karun comes in. Sai will bat at three,” said Gill.

England XI: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue and Shoaib Bashir

India XI: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna