England squad for first Test against India: There is a quiet deliberateness to England’s squad for the first Test against India — a selection neither radical nor routine, but suggestive of a side feeling its way into a new cycle with one eye on continuity, and the other on contingency.
Ben Stokes returns to the helm, having emerged gingerly from a hamstring strain in the Zimbabwe interlude. He presides over a group that, while not brimming with surprise, reveals layers of intrigue: Jacob Bethell, more often a whispered prospect than a present option, steps up. So too does Brydon Carse, whose methods tend more to the unspectacular than the unworthy. And then, there is Jamie Overton — a name not heard since 2022, now recalled like a bookmark slipped back into an unfinished story.
The absence of Gus Atkinson, nursing the strain of Zimbabwe’s single Test, creates space for these adjustments. England’s selectors, often accused of volatility, here seem to have opted for careful arrangement over loud declaration.
Chris Woakes remains the squad’s moral centre — age, wear and domestic toil notwithstanding. Ollie Pope and Joe Root stand as known quantities. Harry Brook and Zak Crawley, still young yet no longer new, carry a measure of expectation.
This will be the opening Test of five — a rare abundance in modern schedules — and the beginning of both sides’ World Test Championship journeys. For England, it’s less a curtain-raiser than a calibration: not just of balance sheets and batting orders, but of intent.
England squad for first Test against India
England squad for the ENG vs IND first Test is given below
Ben Stokes (Captain), Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root
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