India vice-captain Rishabh Pant shed light on the playing XI for the first Test at Headingley, Leeds, starting June 20. Speaking at a pre-match press conference, the wicketkeeper-batter confirmed that he would bat at No. 5.

There has been so much interest in the discourse of Indian cricket about who will replace the positions left vacant by Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who announced their retirements from red-ball cricket in May.

Captain Shubman Gill will take the spot of Kohli and bat at No. 4. That means India need someone to fill the No. 3 spot. It is still not clear whether KL Rahul, who opened the innings in the second unofficial Test and scored a hundred, will open the innings or not. And between Sai Sudharsan and Karun Nair, only one will be preferred.

At the same time, it is still unclear whether the Indian team management would consider Abhimanyu Easwaran or not. Easwaran is one of the most consistent batters in domestic cricket. He has piled on 7,841 runs in 103 matches at an average of 48.70.

In the two unofficial Tests against the England Lions, he fared quite well, scoring 68 in the second innings of the first game and 80 in the second unofficial Test, showcasing his ability in the fourth innings, where batting is considered the toughest. So, will Easwaran be considered for the No. 3 spot?

Pant said the team management has not yet taken a call on who would fill the No. 3 spot. "I think there is still discussion going on about who is going to play 3. But 4, 5 are definitely fixed. I think Shubman is going to bat at 4 and I am going to stick to No. 5 as of now, and the rest we are going to keep on discussing that," said Pant.

Meanwhile, England preferred Ollie Pope over Jacob Bethell for the first Test as their No. 3 batter as they named their playing XI, while Chris Woakes returned to the XI after missing England's last two Tests due to an ankle injury. Woakes has replaced Sam Cook, while Brydon Carse came in for Gus Atkinson, who has been ruled out of the first Test with a hamstring issue. Jamie Smith will operate as a specialist wicketkeeper-batter at No. 7 while maintaining a deep batting line-up.

England XI: Ben Stokes (C), Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, ⁠Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir

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