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The much-awaited India tour of England, consisting of five Test matches, kickstarted on Friday, June 20 at the Headingley in Leeds. With everything on stake to lift the newly introduced Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, the two teams saw some brilliant gameplay on the opening day after Ben Stokes-led England won the toss and invited India to bat first.
The Men in Blue started brilliantly with KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal stitching a 91-run stand for the opening wicket, Sai Sudharsan’s debut innings wasn’t the one that was expected. Although, India piled up 359 runs at the loss of three wickets at stumps on Day, former England captain, Michael Vaughan questioned Ben Stokes’ decision to bowl.
You have to pick your decisions on that moment: Vaughan questions Ben Stokes’ decision to bowl in first Test
Speaking on BBC Test Match Special, Vaughan said, "I am an old-school traditionalist here at Leeds that when the sun is shining, with dry weather, you bat. I was staggered when he said he was going to bowl. Traditions are out the window. You have to pick your decisions on that moment, and not things that you did here years ago."
The former English cricketer reiterated, "You always have to pick your decisions on that moment. And not things that you did here years ago or at other times. It can't affect what the decision is today.” “You look at the England side and their strength is in the batting. And there is inexperience in the bowling at the moment. Ben clearly had a gut feeling, and sometimes it has worked," he further added.
Speaking of the match, at Stumps on Day 1, India had put a mammoth 359/3 with centuries coming from Yashasvi Jaiswal (101 off 159) and skipper Shubman Gill’s bat. Hoping to put a good score on board, Shubman Gill (127* off 175) has been joined by Rishabh Pant (65* off 102) in the middle.
England vs India first Test Playing XI
England: 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: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
