The first of five test matches between England and India gets under way at Trent Bridge, Nottingham on Wednesday and we take a look at the squads, recent form and the all important betting.
This is a 5 match series and we begin with the squads.
England - Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Dom Sibley, Mark Wood
India - Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Suryakumar Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw
Recent Form
England
England hosted New Zealand for two test matches earlier this year and they lost the series 1-0, drawing the first contest and then losing the second match by all of 8 wickets.
England were in India in February and after winning the series opener they lost the next 3 to go down 3-1. In January they won both tests in Sri Lanka and on home soil last year they beat West Indies 2-1 and Pakistan 1-0.
India
India's most recent test match action came against New Zealand in the one off World Test Championship staged in Southampton, a game they lost by 8 wickets.
Their most recent series delivered the aforementioned 3-1 win at home to England. In December 2020 India were in Australia for another 4 match series, again they lost the first contest but hit back to win 2 and draw 1 of the next 3 for a 2-1 series win.
The Venue Trent Bridge, Nottingham
England have lost their last 2 test matches at Trent Bridge. In July 2017 they were beaten by the Proteas by 340 runs, a game where they made 235 runs in their
first innings and just 133 in their second.
In August 2018 India beat England by 203 runs at this ground. India made 329 in their first innings (Kohli 97, Rahane 81) and England replied with just 161. There was a ton for Kohli in India's second innings total of 352/7 declared and Jos Buttler scored a century in England's second innings total of 317 all out with Bumrah taking 5 of those 2nd innings wickets.
You can check the weather forecast here
The Betting - 1st Test
England are currently trading at around 1.63/1 to win the game with the draw a 14/10 chance and India can be backed at around 5/2
As far as the top 1st innings bat markets are concerned Joe Root is 5/2 favourite for England and Virat Kohli is the same price for India
Jimmy Anderson (2/1) and Stuart Broad (9/4) are the favourites to be top England wicket taker in the first innings whilst Jasprit Bumrah is 5/2 favourite to do likewise for India
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
I'm open minded about the match result and I will go with Joe Root, who was terrific in the early part of tour of India earlier this year, to top score for England in the first innings. There isn't an awful lot of imagination in that selection but I struggle to find alternatives in the home sides top order.
For a Man of the Match pick Virat Kohli was below par in the home series against England earlier this year but he fits the horses for courses strategy given what he did at this venue in 2018.
Bets: Top England 1st Innings Bat Joe Root at 5/2
Man of the Match Virat Kohli at 8/1
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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