Join us for updates, analysis and colour from the first day of the series opener
Welcome to our live report of the first day of the first India-England Test from Chennai. Join us for updates, analysis and colour. You can find our traditional ball-by-ball commentary here
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9.00am: England win toss and bat
No hesitation in opting to make first use of this pitch for Joe Root, who is playing his 100th Test today. “I do enjoy playing in India. It’s a big challenge and the boys will have to relish it,” he says. Virat Kohli admits that he would have batted first, too, and calls it a “good cricketing wicket”.
For India, the big news this morning is that Axar Patel – who looked set to partner R Ashwin as the second spinner – was ruled out 80 minutes before the toss with a knee injury suffered in yesterday’s training session. They have decided to pick three spinners in Ashwin, Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Nadeem, with Jasprit Bumrah (playing his first-ever home Test) and Ishant Sharma forming a two-man pace attack.
Zak Crawley misses both Chennai Tests after suffering a freak wrist injury, so Dan Lawrence keeps his place and is carded to bat at No. 3. The other big calls: Dom Bess plays ahead of Moeen Ali, while Jimmy Anderson is preferred to Stuart Broad.
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets at @mroller98