England opt to bat in Test series opener
Birmingham, Aug 1 : England skipper Joe Root won the toss and opted to bat against India in the opener of the five-Test rubber at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground here on Wednesday.
India have surprisingly left Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara out of the playing XI with Lokesh Rahul taking his No.3 place, and picked four quick bowlers with Ravichandran Ashwin as the lone specialist spinner.
England on the other hand, already announced their playing XI on Tuesday with leg-spinner Adil Rashid making his comeback to the longer format after a two-year gap.
England: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (Captain), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (WK), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.
India: Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma.
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Rishabh Pant overtakes Kohli in Test rankings
Dubai, Oct 23: Rishabh Pant on Wednesday overtook his superstar India teammate Virat Kohli to reach the sixth spot in the ICC Test rankings for batters.
Fresh from a counter-attacking 99 in the second innings of the opening Test against New Zealand, Pant gained three spots in the rankings while Kohli, who made a fluent 70 in Bengaluru, dropped a place to be eighth.
Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal remains India's highest ranked batter at four. India captain Rohit Sharma dropped two places to be joint 15th alongside Sri Lanka's Dimuth Karunaratne.
England star Joe Root maintains a healthy lead at the top of the charts.
New Zealand duo of Rachin Ravindra (up 36 places to 18th) and Devon Conway (up 12 spots to 36th) also made good ground on the latest list for Test batters, while teammate Matt Henry (up two rungs to ninth with a new career-high rating) was the big winner in bowlers' category.
Henry picked up eight wickets during the Black Caps' drought-breaking eight-wicket victory over India in Bengaluru, while teammate Will O'Rourke (up two spots to 39th) was also rewarded for his seven scalps from the same match.
Pakistan spinner Noman Ali was re-instated at 17th on the rankings following his 11 wickets across two innings against England, while teammate Sajid Khan gained 22 places to move to 50th after he was adjudged Player of the Match in the same contest.
India's pace spearhead remains at the top of the bowlers' rankings followed by teammate R Ashwin. Retaining the seventh sport, Ravindra Jadeja is another Indian in the top-10.
