Follow UsEngland announced their playing 11 for the Headingley Test, the first game of the five-match series, on June 18 (Wednesday), two days in advance of the start of the game on June 20 (Friday).
The pace bowling trio consists of Chris Woakes, who is making a comeback to England, playing 11 after a gap of seven months, having last featured in December 2024, Brydon Carse, who will be playing his first home Test, and Josh Tongue, who, prior to the four-day Test against Zimbabwe earlier in May this year, had only featured in two Tests, both of which had come in 2023.
Thus, this is a weakened pace-bowling attack, without the services of Mark Wood, Jofra Archer and Gus Atkinson as main weapons of attack. However, the potent off-spin of Shoaib Bashir will be available for the English side.
The batting department is a settled unit with Ollie Pope being preferred over Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) star Jacob Bethell at number three. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett remain the openers with Joe Root, Harry Brook and Ben Stokes making up the remaining batting line-up, followed by wicketkeeper batter Jamie Smith.
England Playing 11 for Headingley Test vs 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