Satya Prakash sethi: English batters have struggled against quality spin, subcontinent-style pitches or dry tracks that offer turn. India having two world-class spinners who are not only capable of maintaining control but also consistently taking wickets in the middle overs. It will be interesting to see the match.
Here's Kaushik with another interesting observation, "At the far end of the ground, we have the slip cordon in practice again Pant (wk) Nair (1st) KL (2nd) Jaiswal (Gully) It'll be interesting to see if Gill stays in the cordon as he'd been practising in the days leading into today. Or if he is the captain that wants to be at mid-on, mid-off".
Swastik: I think India will win this series because their pace attack looks better than that of England.
Sai Sudharsan has just been handed his Test cap.
"Speaking of which, Shardul Thakur has marked his runup" he adds, importantly.
Here's Kaushik chiming in from a Headingley, "Good morning from Sunny Leeds! It's been bright and sunny for a week now . Sunscreen sales have never been higher, a pharmacist tells me. Some may call it divine intervention."
There's a freshly minted [b]Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy[/b] in contention and we want to hear from you, who do you think will be the inaugural winners? What do you think the scoreline will be at the end of this series and why? Go ahead, use the Have Your Say feature available on the desktop website and tell us.
While this series is going to undoubtedly be a stiff challenge for Shubman Gill as captain, it's also going to be one for Gautam Gambhir who's had a rather tumultuous start to his career as India's head coach, particularly in the red-ball format. His tenure began with India's historic loss to New Zealand, followed by India losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia before seeing a series of high-profile retirements. Now, Gambhir has a young team at his disposal, a side that he not only can, but must, mould into the next generation of superstars for judgement time is nigh.
What will conditions be like? All reports point to it being a very dry English summer and that's going to translate to fairly dry pitches. While early looks at the Headingley surface suggested that it will be a green top, that's only likely to last up until the end of Day 2 at most. Just like we saw during the WTC Final at Lord's just a few days ago, the toss is likely to play a crucial part. With there being moisture and live grass to start with, it should aid the bowlers before drying out, flattening and all round much easier to bat on heading into days 3 and 4 - just like we saw at Lord's.
09:45 Local Time, 08:45 GMT, 14:15 IST: It’s a new dawn for Indian cricket - a newly built vessel under the command of a new skipper, setting sail on its maiden voyage to a familiar yet unforgiving land. As India embark on this 46-day, five Test-long Tour to England, Shubman Gill and his elevation dominate the narrative. Will it be a brutal initiation or an effortless transition? One thing is certain, his team will face an English side that will present a bold front, regardless of the makeup of their ranks. It’s no secret that England have an inexperienced bowling attack. Bashir, Tongue and Carse share 24 Tests between them. Woakes is returning from injury and Ben Stokes has bowled all of 11.2 overs in the past six months. The surfaces that are likely to be on offer - flat and batting-friendly since the Bazball revolution - will do them no favours either. While India’s batting-order has seen a facelift of its own, while no longer adorned by the majesty of Kohli or the reassurance of Rohit, they still have, in theory, the necessary ingredients for success.
The crux of the battle then is likely to be between the relatively more settled units - England’s batting and India’s bowling. That, however, doesn’t imply that they are immune to uncertainty. While Duckett brings the flair, Root the unmatched substance and Stokes the wizardry, Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope still tread on uncertainty. It’s far from straightforward for India either. They invest in Jadeja for control, in Bumrah for venom, in Siraj for energy and in the rest for promise. They’ll hope that Prasidh, Washington, Rana and Shardul can deliver on that promise.
England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
Preview by Kaushik Rangarajan
The walk up the slope from Cardigan Road towards Headingley throws up a peculiar sight: a neglected and abandoned relic. It's an old bear pit from the short-lived Leeds Zoological and Botanical Gardens of the 1800s. The zoo folded quickly under financial strain; the brown bear was eventually sold off with the rest. It's a weirdly fitting image to stumble upon before entering the famous stadium, a place where things can quickly veer off plan, where the past clings to the present in strange ways, like in the form of graffiti on the street's utility boxes that honour Botham and Willis and Stokes and Leach.
But, Headingley has retained a quintessentially English vibe: low stands intimately close to the action, shifting cloud patterns, and the ball snaking about. Like the Gabba is to Australia, this ground reflects something elemental about England's cricket. But where Brisbane long served as a launchpad for Australian dominance over visiting teams, Leeds can be less definitive and more unpredictable. No surprise, then, that it's often the setting for mid-series drama and only ever chosen to start a Test series nine times in England's long history.
But this week, it promises one certainty. It will bring together the game's current top-ranked batter (Joe Root), bowler (Jasprit Bumrah) and all-rounder (Ravindra Jadeja) to serve up a delicious start of a five-course meal. Other venues in this series are still waiting on Bumrah's workload status. In a transitioning Indian team suddenly bereft of experience and star power, Bumrah is the one linchpin with the ability to bend the series to his will. He's a piece even the Bazballers have yet to crack. And England rattled Australia here two summers ago with their blazing approach. They even caught India off guard in the subcontinent, briefly. But they erred there by not picking enough bowling to finish the job, to match India's depth and quality, spell for spell, day for day.
A year on, the same question flips to India: can they be braver than England were last year, or than they themselves were more recently in Australia. Brave enough to pick attacks that can take 20 wickets. Because there are possibilities when you flip departments. As Rishabh Pant pointed out, they won't have to face James Anderson or Stuart Broad. One of them has the trophy co-named after him. The other is commentating, leaving behind two frontline seamers with just eight Tests between them. But throw in a fit-again Woakes and a fully involved Stokes in these conditions, and it's like having Ashwin and Jadeja at home for India, batting depth, bowling teeth in helpful conditions, all rolled into one.
And so begins the journey for India's Gen-Z captain, not in a fortress, but in a place where control is an illusion. Where bear pits crumble, legends cling to walls, and matches rarely follow the script. For India, this isn't just the start of a series, it's the start of something bigger. A new team, a new cycle, and even a new trophy, named after Anderson and Sachin Tenduklar, two giants of the modern game, now fittingly etched into the frame of what follows.
When: England vs India, 1st Test, June 20-24 2025, 15:30 IST, 11:00 Local
Where: Headingley, Leeds
What to expect: The surface wears a greenish tinge on the eve of the Test but is expected to ease out after offering some help early but with hot and sunny weather predicted for the duration of the Test, it should ease out and get progressively better for batting. Recent history at Headingley suggests teams will prefer to bowl first - both the two latest county matches played here in May followed that script.
Team News:
England
The hosts named their XI on the eve of the game, retaining Ollie Pope at No. 3 over Jacob Bethell. Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue will get first crack as a fast bowling pair.
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
All signs point to Karun Nair's return to the Indian Test XI after eight years, at No.3. The toss up for the sixth batter then comes down to Nitish Reddy and Sai Sudharsan and on evidence of the practice sessions, the all-rounder is set to start the series and have four fast bowlers following him in the XI with Shardul Thakur best suited for No. 8.
- The last time India played here, they were bundled out for 78 in their first innings, their third-lowest total in England. Their second-highest total in this country - 628 - also came at this venue.
- Bumrah needs five wickets to become the first Indian bowler to take 150 wickets in SENA countries. Only Wasim Akram (146) has more among Asian bowlers.
- Joe Root has 2846 runs at 58.08 and 10 hundreds against. No one has scored more runs vs India in Tests. But he has been dismissed 9 times in the format by Bumrah.
What they said:
"I think the Test series that we played against England in India was one of the best series that I have been part of. And even in that Test series, not many of our senior players were available in every match. And how we went about that series was the way that I think this series is also going to be. I mean, if you look at the series scorecard, I think it was about 4-1, but the number wasn't really justified how tough that series was for us." - Shubman Gill harks back to last year's series between the sides.
"I think this is correct but since me and Baz have been captain and coach, I don't think we've actually lost a game with Woakesy in the team. So again that just proves how much of a valuable cricketer he is to any team that he's turned out for. I think him being the leader of the attack, he's going to thrive off that responsibility and yeah he's a quality cricketer, you know, the relentlessness that he has with the ball, whether that be new ball or old ball, and then having his ability with a bat down at number eight obviously that's a plus." - Ben Stokes is aware of all the numbers.
England Squad: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes(c), Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir, Jamie Overton, Samuel James Cook, Jacob Bethell
India
England
