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England and India are set to face each other in the third Test at Headingley in Leeds, starting Wednesday (August 25).
The visitors are 1-0 ahead in the ongoing five-match series after registering a memorable victory in the second Test by a massive margin of 151 runs. The Virat Kohli-led side will enter Headingley with supreme confidence and shall look to record another triumph in order to gain an unassailable lead.
On the other hand, the hosts, who have been hit by several injury concerns, will be focusing to bounce back to level the series.
Pitch report:
The surface at Headingley has always been batting friendly, with a fair amount of assistance for pacers in the initial phase of the game. So far, this ground has hosted 78 matches in which 29 have been won by teams batting first while 31 victories have come while bowling first.
Head to Head record (in England):
Matches played: 64 | England won: 34 | India won: 8 | Draw: 22 | Tied: 0
Playing Combination:
England
England have dropped the likes of Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley for the third Test. In such case, Haseeb Hameed will open the innings alongside Rory Burns while Dawid Malan shall come at number three spot.
Similarly, the hosts will also make a forced change as Mark Wood, who troubled Indian batters with his extra pace in the previous game, has been ruled out of third Test due to shoulder injury. Pacer Saqib Mahmood is likely to replace Wood in the upcoming fixture to finally make his Test debut.
ENG XI: Joe Root (c), Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Ollie Robinson, Saqib Mahmood, James Anderson.
India
It is highly unlikely that India would make any changes in the winning combination. However, their batting is still one of the biggest concerns. The tourists would be hoping to see their skipper Kohli overcome his bad form and reach a triple-figure mark. Kohli’s last Test ton came in November 2019 against Bangladesh at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
IND XI: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
