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Eng vs Ind, 3rd Test: Kohli opts to bat, visitors name unchanged squad

Joe Root and Virat Kohli (Photo: Twitter/England Cricket)
Joe Root and Virat Kohli (Photo: Twitter/England Cricket)

Leeds [UK], August 25 (ANI): Virat Kohli-led India won the toss and opted to bat first against England in the third Test of the five-match series here at the Headingley Cricket Ground on Wednesday.

Having won the toss, India captain Kohli said: "It's a surprise I've won. We're batting first. Looks firm and without grass and runs on the board will set this up. We're going in with the same XI. We thought about getting Ashwin in, and the pressure of the extra seamer in these conditions is crucial. Jadeja will bowl a lot more overs because the conditions are suited to him."

England skipper Joe Root said: "There's a bit of cloud cover and it's tacky, and it'll get better and better for batting eventually. Quite happy to lose the toss. Malan comes in for Sibley and Overton comes in for Wood. Overton was picked on the conditions. Saqib was great in the white-ball format, but Overton continuously performs in county cricket so we've picked him, even though it was a difficult choice to make. We need our openers to get us to a good start. It's one of the hardest things to open in England, as Virat said, and the openers have the temperament to get us off to a good start."

India named an unchanged line-up. On the other hand, England made two changes, as the hosts brought in Dawid Malan and Craig Overton in place of Dom Sibley and Mark Wood. Batsmen Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley were omitted from the England squad last week and pacer Mark Wood was ruled out of the third Test on Monday.

India playing XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.

England playing XI: Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan, Joe Root(c), Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler(w), Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Craig Overton, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson. (ANI)