England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bowl first in the opening Test.

While England is fielding a strong unit under Stokes’ leadership, India is being led by Shubman Gill and features a young and relatively inexperienced squad. Notably, this is the first time in many years that India is playing a Test series without stalwarts Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravichandran Ashwin.