England names playing XI for 1st Test against India; Woakes, Carse return, no room for Bethell

For the opening Test, England has retained the majority of the XI they fielded against Zimbabwe during the one-off Test last month. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett will open for England, followed by Ollie Pope at number three.

There were speculations about Crawley or Pope being dropped for young Jacob Bethell, who dazzled on the crease with his rollicking performances in New Zealand last year.

In the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, Crawley and Pope made a bold statement with their swashbuckling performances in the first innings against Zimbabwe. Crawley enchanted the spectators with his composed 124(171), while Pope embraced 'Bazball' and went all guns blazing to 171(166).

With the duo retained in the XI, there was no room left for Bethell. After Pope, England's talismanic Joe Root will come in at fourth spot, followed by young sensation Harry Brook at five. Captain Ben Stokes will offer depth at six, with wicketkeeper Jamie Smith offering firepower at seven.

Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue will spearhead England's pace bowling attack. Shoaib Bashir will act as the sole frontline spinner.

During the buildup of the Test series, Woakes represented the England Lions and returned with match figures of 5/103. His wicket tally included India A's heavy hitters Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Karun Nair.

Woakes, 36, is one of the silent heroes for England in home Tests, considering he won the Compton-Miller medal in the 2023 Ashes with his impressive tally of 19 wickets at 18.15. He went on to add 24 scalps at 20.25 last summer after taking the mantle of serving as England's premier pace spearhead from the ageless James Anderson.

He returns in place for the first time since December. Brydon Carse will play his first Test on home soil, having featured in his previous five Tests in Pakistan and New Zealand. Gus Atkinson and Sam Cook made way for the duo's return.

England Playing XI for the 1st Test against India: 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's squad: Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana. (ANI)