On Thursday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, Ben Stokes won the toss and chose to bat first. England, however, shocked everyone by selecting three spinners. India, under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, entered the game with a tried-and-true lineup. The two teams will not have faced each other in India since 2021, when the hosts rallied from a 1-0 deficit in the first Test in Chennai to win the series. In just three Test matches, Axar Patel—who made his series debut—finished with 27 wickets. England will begin the first two Test matches without 19-year-old Shoaib Bashir, whose visa was only granted on Wednesday, while India will be without the services of Virat Kohli.
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