England win toss, bat for Edgbaston Test

Joe Root has won the coin toss and England will bat first in the opening Test against India at Edgbaston. 

England have an imposing record at the Birmingham venue, and under cloudy grey skies the home captain had no hesitation in asking the visitors to bowl.

India have opted for Shikhar Dhawan to retain his spot opening the batting, despite having made a pair in India's only warm-up match, undone by seam movement that will have England's quicks licking their lips.

KL Rahul has kept his spot in the side with the out-of-form Cheteshwar Pujara benched. Rahul, who had been a candidate to be squeezed out of a strong top three, had strong backing from outside the team, including from former captain Sourav Ganguly. 

Dhawan had a solid outing in the ODI series that preceded the Tests , and hit a century in India's last Test, against Afghanistan. Edgbaston is the 20th of his 31 Tests to be played outside India, and he enters the match averaging 43.72 on foreign soil, a mark that is only marginally below the 44.37 he scores at home.

Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Jadeja were unable to force their way into the XI, with India going for three quicks in Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami, plus allrounder Hardik Pandya, leaving Ravi Ashwin as the sole front-line spinner.

India have won just three Test series in England, the last in 2007, but Kohli believes his side are equipped to add to that tally.

"Our bowling attack has matured over the years," he explained.

"They've gained experience of playing all around the world and understanding conditions, pitches - and opposition batsmen as well.

"We have the skill sets, character and mental toughness required to compete and win in overseas conditions," Kohli insisted.

The India captain enters this series insisting he has "nothing to prove" but detractors are quick to note he averages just 13 in England, and was dismissed four times by James Anderson on a woeful 2014 tour.

"I want to score runs for the team and take Indian cricket forward, and that's my only motive," said Kohli.

"I'm not in a frame of mind to prove myself in any country, I want to perform for the team.

"I need to be in the most convinced and the most clear mental space that I can be and that happens when I'm just focused on what I need to do."

England captain Joe Root had confirmed on match eve that Adil Rashid would play as the side's sole spinner for the series opener, which is England's 1000th Test match. England left off-spinner Moeen Ali and uncapped Essex seamer Jamie Porter ont he sidelines from their 13-man squad.

That makes Yorkshire leg-spinner Rashid England's sole designated slow bowler, although Root, his county colleague, can supplement his top-order batting with occasional off-spin.

Top-order batsman Dawid Malan remains in the XI, with allrounder Ben Stokes and Surrey left-arm quick Sam Curran providing seam bowling support to the veteran new-ball pairing of James Anderson and Stuart Broad in the first of a five-Test series.

"Looking at the surface, we've decided we only want to go with one spinner, and that's going to be Adil," Root said.

"With the amount of right-handers in what we think is going to be India's team, he gives us a very attacking option."

Rashid's previous 10 Tests, the first of which was in December 2016, have yielded 38 wickets at an expensive average of 42.78.

But the 30-year-old has been brought back after impressing in recent home limited-overs series against Australia and India.

"I think he's obviously bowling with a huge amount of confidence," added Root.

England have also made Jos Buttler vice-captain of the Test side, replacing James Anderson, who himself was temporarily in the role following the late-night fracas for which Ben Stokes has a court date next week. Buttler is also England's ODI vice-captain. 

England: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (c), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Adil Rashid, Sam Curran, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.

India: Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravi Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma.