Ahead of the much-anticipated first Test between India and England, R Ashwin’s wife, Prithi Narayanan, shared an emotional and cryptic Instagram story. Her message came just before India’s first Test in years without the familiar presence of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ashwin himself.
“Test match day for India, and I woke up with many mixed feelings. Have to find a different way to love it and unlearn the only way I knew to.” Her post reflected the sentiments of many fans who are adjusting to a new-look Indian team.
Ashwin had retired during the Australia series, while Kohli and Rohit announced their retirements ahead of the England series. This marked the beginning of a fresh era for Indian cricket as they stepped into the match with rising stars, including a debutant, B Sai Sudharsan.
Sudharsan Makes Test Debut on a Historic Date
Sai Sudharsan, who plays domestic cricket for Tamil Nadu and has represented Surrey in the County Championship, made his Test debut for India on June 20 at Headingley. Interestingly, this date also marks the Test debuts of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly in 1996, and Virat Kohli in 2011.
Sudharsan became India’s 317th men’s Test cricketer and was handed his Test cap by Cheteshwar Pujara, now working as a commentator. He took the crucial number three spot in the batting order. Another major return was Karun Nair, back in the Test squad for the first time since 2017, and he will bat at number six.
The Indian lineup also featured Shardul Thakur as the seam-bowling all-rounder, preferred over Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Prasidh Krishna joined Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj in the pace attack. Ravindra Jadeja was the only frontline spinner, which meant no place for Kuldeep Yadav in the eleven.
New Leadership and Mixed Preparations for Series Opener
Shubman Gill began his journey as India’s Test captain at Headingley. “We’d have bowled first as well. It has been a dry summer, so although there might be a little bit in it in the first session, it’s going to be a really good batting wicket after that.”
He added, “The sun is out; it looks like it’s going to be a good batting day for us. Preparation has been amazing. All the boys are feeling in a really good space mentally and physically.” England’s captain Ben Stokes also spoke ahead of the series opener, stating that though their preparation was mixed, they were “raring to go.”
He said, “Headingley is generally a very good cricket wicket, we’ve had some great games here over the years and hopefully we can use the early conditions and get a bit out of it.” Stokes concluded, “We’re all excited, we’re all ready to go. The preparation has been mixed, to be honest. We’ve had some lads playing county cricket, but we’ve had a really good three days building up to this Test match and everyone is raring to go.”
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