Virat Kohli wins his first toss in Tests in England as Ravichandran Ashwin continues to be sidelined

Team India skipper Virat Kohli has won the toss for the first time ever in a Test match in England, after nine attempts. Kohli achieved this unique distinction, after walking out for the toss of the third Test match being held in Headingley. The 32-year-old opted to bat after deciding to go with an unchanged lineup for the encounter, having recorded a triumph in the previous match at Lord’s. That marked only the fourth time in 64 Tests that Kohli has played unchanged XIs in successive Tests. Encounters against England, Trent Bridge & Southampton (2018), West Indies (North Sound & Kingston in 2019), Bangladesh (Indore & Kolkata in 2019/20) and the ongoing third Test match represent those matches.

However, this means that off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin continues to be sidelined, which is certainly a major decision considering the impact he is capable of. Kohli admitted that he considered including Ashwin but termed the pressure of the presence of an extra seamer in these conditions as crucial.

“It’s a surprise I’ve won (the toss)”

“It’s a surprise I’ve won (the toss). We’re batting first. Looks firm and without grass and runs on the board will set this up. We’re going in with the same XI. We thought about getting Ashwin in, and the pressure of the extra seamer in these conditions is crucial. Jadeja will bowl a lot more overs because the conditions are suited to him. You can lay down markers and a culture, but it’s upto the boys to take it up and win from pressure situations,” he stated as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“It’s all about handling pressure at the highest level. It’s the toughest place to bat for the openers, and KL and Rohit have done a good job. Hopefully they can continue. About my batting, I’ll try to make an impact for the team with the bat. I believe in my process and sometimes it doesn’t really come off on the field, but I’m more concerned about how much of an impact I have on the team’s performance,” added Kohli.

“Quite happy to lose the toss”

England have made two changes to their lineup with Dawid Malan replacing Dom Sibley and Craig Overton included in place of Mark Wood.

“There’s a bit of cloud cover and it’s tacky, and it’ll get better and better for batting eventually. Quite happy to lose the toss. Malan comes in for Sibley and Overton comes in for Wood. Overton was picked on the conditions. Saqib was great in the white-ball format, but Overton continuously performs in county cricket so we’ve picked him, even though it was a difficult choice to make.”

“We need our openers to get us to a good start. It’s one of the hardest things to open in England, as Virat said, and the openers have the temperament to get us off to a good start.”

Lineups:

England (Playing XI): Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan, Joe Root(c), Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler(w), Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Craig Overton, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson.

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.