England Vs India, 1st Test Preview: All You Need To Know | Predicted Playing XI | Weather Forecast

India vs England Test Series Preview: Find out India's Predicted Playing XI, Weather Forecast and other details about the ENG Vs IND 1st Test.

Image: Twitter/ @BCCI

Nottingham: The Indian team takes the field at Trent-Bridge in the first of 5-match Test series on Wednesday, 4 August. The Indian team has been in England since the World Test Championship (WTC) Final.  India vs England Pataudi Trophy, starting tomorrow marks the start of a new WTC cycle for India. In this cycle, India will play England, South Africa, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Australia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh between the period of August 2021 to June 2023. 

This 5-match series is the longest series in the WTC cycle. Team India had a practice game against the County XI from July 20 - July 22. The 4-day practice match was a good outing for India. The standout performance came from KL Rahul, batting in the middle order who scored 101 runs. With Mayank Agarwal getting injured, it seems likely that KL Rahul will open the innings with Rohit Sharma. 

🗣️ 🗣️ Any match you play for your country is important: #TeamIndia captain @imVkohli #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/EjuE4Zs0pj

— BCCI (@BCCI) August 3, 2021

Hanuma Vihari is also a candidate who could open the innings for India as he has an experience of playing county cricket in England. India's recent Test-record against the SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) suggests that India has a poor first game against these countries. Ravi Shastri's men would be eager to change this perception about the team by performing well in the first Test match.  

Apart from the opening-batsman fiasco, the other decision that Virat will have to make will be about the fast bowlers. Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah are two fixed player while Kohli will choose between Ishant, Siraj and Thakur. 

Weather Forecast

The weather in Nottingham, is expected to be cloudy on Day 1. The sun will be out on Wednesday, but all the following days are expected to experience some rainfall in Nottingham as per Accuweather. It looks like the first Test match is goinmg to be a 'start-stop' affair. 

Umm guys, before you get too excited for the 1st #ENGvIND test..this is the weather in Nottingham for the next 5 days. 😐
Day 1 is cloudy & rain expected on the next 4 days. 😭 pic.twitter.com/VuGCjzPCRl

— 🇮🇳 Hαвíвtí 2.0 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (@YasQueen_17) August 3, 2021

Probable Playing XI

England's Probable XI: Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Root (c), Ollie Pope/Jonny Bairstow, Dan Lawrence, Jos Buttler, Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

India's Probable XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah

The match starts at 3:30 pm IST on Wednesday. The Live Streaming will be available on Disney+Hotstar.