England to bat first, KL Rahul, Siraj, Thakur in playing XI, Ashwin dropped

England won the toss and opted to bat against India in the first Test here on Wednesday with visitors keeping seasoned spinner Ravichandran Ashwin out of the playing XI to shore up their batting.

KL Rahul is set to open with Rohit Sharma while pacers Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj replaced Ashwin and Ishant Sharma from the last Test match.

India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Shami.

England: Rory Burns, Dominic Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Root(c), Jonny Bairstow, Daniel Lawrence, Jos Buttler(w), Sam Curran, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.

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