So this is finally happening! The first test is happening at the beautiful and legendary Chepauk stadium in Chennai.
India should play 5 bowlers. The pitch is not going to start spinning from Day 1 but it would be very handy to get 3 spinners playing for India. Ravichandran Ashwin should be in by default but I hope that Washington Sundar gets a game in. England play right arm off spin pretty well so I would be tempted to get in either Kuldeep Yadav or Axar Patel. Kuldeep is an attacking spinner and he will always go for wickets and I am really hoping that he gets a game.
Crawley is ruled out for England so who will replace him at the top order? Would Pope get a game? Root should bat at number 4 if he is comfortable batting at 4.
Will England play both Broad and Anderson? Maybe England will rotate them and keep fitness in mind but we will have to wait and see what happens to that. If you want to start the series well, I would be tempted to play both of them in the first test especially in India where if you lose a test there would be a lot of catching up to do!
If you win the toss, you have to bat first. The team batting first will have a huge advantage!