Birmingham Test: England win the toss, bowl first
England have won the toss and opted to bowl first in the third Test against India, at Edgbaston, on Wednesday. Skipper MS Dhoni said that had he won the toss, he would have opted to bowl as well.
- NDTVSports
- Updated: August 10, 2011 04:10 PM IST
England have won the toss and opted to bowl first in the third Test against India, at Edgbaston, on Wednesday. Skipper MS Dhoni said that had he won the toss, he would have opted to bowl as well.
Virender Sehwag has come back in to the side to replace Abhinav Mukund after a shoulder injury had ruled him out for the first two Tests. Amit Mishra replaces an injured Harbhajan Singh.
Left armer RP Singh who had replaced injured Zaheer Khan in the squad fails to find a position in the side.
England on the other hand, have brought in Ravi Bopara for an injured Jonathon Trott. Bopara is expected to bat at the number 6 and has already expressed his desire to make his spot in the Test team, more permanent than it has been in the past. A win here will help his side go 3-0 up and ensure their claim of the top-spot in the ICC Test rankings.
If India can manage to win this Test however, it will help their chances of defending their top-spot going into the fourth and final Test of the series. The seamers will have to come to the fore in a prolific manner as the green cover is expected to assist the faster bowlers throughout the five days.
Rains too, might affect the schedule of play but a general cloud cover will only further add to the joy of pacers in both the teams.
India : 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Suresh Raina, 7 MS Dhoni (c) (wk), 8 Amit Mishra, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Sreesanth. ÂÂ
England : 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Ravi Bopara, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Graeme Swann, 11 James Anderson.