With just a day to go for their Test series against India, England have named their playing XI for the Hyderabad encounter.
Ben Stokes leads the side which features three spin options in Jack Leach, Rehan Ahmed and Tom Hartley.
Joe Root, who is slated to bat at number four, can also turn his arm over if required, whereas Mark Wood will be the frontline seamer in the lineup.
Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett are the openers, with Stokes, Ollie Pope, and Jonny Bairstow joining Root in the middle-order. Surrey’s Ben Foakes is expected to keep the wickets.
This will be a Test debut for Hartley, an ICC report on Wednesday said.
The XI has four players who didn’t feature in England’s last Test at The Oval: Pope, Foakes, Rehan and Leach.
Squad: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, Jack Leach.
The series runs from January 25-March 11
Schedule:
25-29 January, First Test, Hyderabad
02-06 February, Second Test, Visakhapatnam
15-19 February, Third Test, Rajkot
23-28 February, Fourth Test, Ranchi
07-11 March, Fifth Test, Dharamsala.
