Buoyant, resurgent India takes on confident England as stage for resumption of cricketing action

Chennai, Feb 4 (Agency) A buoyant and resurgent India will take on an equally confident England in the first of the two tests beginning at the M A Chidambaram Stadim here tomorrow, as International cricketing action is all set to resume in the country, post the COVID pandemic. India was high on morale after its 2-1 series win against Australia, after hitting the nadir 36 in the first test at Adelaide, before winning at Melbourne and breaching the Aussie’s Gabba Fortress to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, despite missing several key bowlers and players due to injuries and Skipper Virat Kohli, who took paternity leave. England too would not be short on confidence as they flew to India straight from its 2-0 win over Sri Lanka, where the conditions were similar to the Indian conditions, with skipper Joe Root on high octane form having scored a big double hundred in the second test at Galle, all set to play his 100th test.

England team (from): Joe Root (Captain), Jofra Archer, Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dom Sibley, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone and Chris Woakes.

Indian team (from) : Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant and Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keepers), R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur.