England team news and all the pre-match talk ahead of India opener in Chennai

England are in Chennai ahead of the start of a four-match Test series against Virat Kohli’s India as they look to build on last month’s 2-0 series victory over Sri Lanka.

The two teams haven’t met in the longest form of the game in the sub continent since 2017 and the series opener is the first of nine Tests between the two this year, with the Asian side travelling to England later in 2021 for a five-match series.

England have got plenty of options at their disposal for their first Test, although Zak Crawley has been ruled out with a sprained wrist picked up in the build-up to the game.

Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran and Mark Wood have all returned home following the Sri Lanka’ series so aren’t options for the for the first Test due to England’s rotation policy, although Bairstow is set to fly back out to India for the second Test.

Out of quarantine ✅
Into the nets ✅

Jofra Archer, Ben Stokes and Rory Burns have begun their preparations for the first Test in Chennai.

(?: @englandcricket) #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/ojtcq9oijb

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) January 30, 2021

However, Ben Stokes, Rory Burns and Jofra Archer have all returned to the squad for the series, with Stokes a potential option to bat higher up than usual due to Crawley’s injury.

The way in which England line up will ultimately come down to whether they want to name three front-line spinners or two, and as a result, hand Moeen Ali a recall to the side, having not played in the longest form of the game for England since the first Ashes Test in 2019.

If Root did elect for this route, you would expect him and Stokes to move up from their normal positions, with Ali batting at seven, below Dan Lawrence and Jos Buttler in the middle order.

Ollie Pope is also another option to come into the side, should England elect to not go down the three spinner policy, and it will be very pitch-dependent.

The Yorkshireman, who is leading England in India for the first time as captain is reaching a special milestone in this game, getting set to feature in his 100th Test Match for his country, something only 14 players have previously done.

The 30-year-old has spoken to Sky Sports about how they may go about selection, following Crawley’s injury ahead of the game.

“Everything is on the table in terms of selection, we’ll weigh things up when we get to the ground, look at the conditions, look at the surface again and try and have real clarity going into the game,” Root said.

“There are a number of different things, we’ve got some brilliant players, brilliant options to choose from – we’ll look at the balance of the side and things as well. These will all be things we discuss over the course of today and make sure that we’re really happy with the team that we take into the game tomorrow.

“There are a number of ways we can look at it, a number of different combinations we can go with. That’s a really exciting part of it, we’ve now got a number of good players who can bat in different positions and fill different roles so I think it would be silly to write off anything right now.”

England know just how tough a series will be against India who come into it on the back of a brilliant 2-1 victory in Australia and are very tricky to beat on home soil, having only lost one of the last 35 matches they have hosted winning 12 series in the process.

Whoever England end up selecting for this first match will need to be at their best with this series arguably being the most challenging one which Root’s men can face.

Predicted XI – Burns, Sibley, Lawrence, Root (C), Stokes, Pope, Buttler (WK), Bess, Leach, Broad, Anderson

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