India Unchanged at Headingley vs England; Kohli Wins Toss & Will Bat First

India have made no changes to their playing XI. England have made two changes.

Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat first.

Image: ICC/Twitter

India captain Virat Kohli has finally won a toss and he opted to bat first against England in the third Test at Headingley. Kohli had lost 8 tosses before this.

India, who lead the series 1-0, are unchanged from the Lord's Test in their playing XI.

Joe Root said England weren't disappointed to be bowling first. England have brought in Craig Overton for Mark Wood and Dawid Malan for Dom Sibley.

India's spinner in the playing XI Ravindra Jadeja has been wicketless so far on the Test tour.

“It's a surprise I've won (the toss). 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. You can lay down markers and a culture, but it's upto the boys to take it up and win from pressure situations. It's all about handling pressure at the highest level. It's the toughest place to bat for the openers, and KL and Rohit have done a good job. Hopefully they can continue. About my batting, I'll try to make an impact for the team with the bat,” Virat Kohli said at the toss.

“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,” said Joe Root.

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