IND vs ENG: Sai Sudharsan Makes Test Debut; Joins Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly In THIS Unique List-OxBig News Network

Sai Sudharsan was handed his maiden Test cap ahead of the first Test between India and England at Headingley, Leeds on June 20, Friday. Sudharsan got his Test cap from Cheteshwar Pujara before the start of the play on the opening day of the five-match series for the newly-minted Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.

With this, Sai joined an elite of Indian greats – Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli – who also made their Test debut on the same date, June 20. While Ganguly and Dravid made their Test debuts in England in 1996 in the same match, Kohli was handed his first Test cap in the West Indies in 2011.

The 23-year-old Sudharsan was in sensational from for Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2025 season, winning the Orange Cap, having scored 759 runs in 15 matches. However, Sai didn’t have great start to his Test career as he got out for a duck in his first innings. He was caught down leg in Ben Stokes’ over before the lunch. 

Sudharsan, who has scored 1,957 runs at 39.93 in 29 first-class matches with seven centuries and five fifties, will look to make his mark in the second inning of the ongoing Test. 

IND vs ENG, 1st Test: Toss, Playing XI And More

Earlier, England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl first against India in the first Test of the five-match series for the newly-minted Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.

Apart from Sai Sudharsan’s Test debut, seasoned middle-order batter Karun Nair also made his come back into the India’s playing XI after a long wait of eight years.

Playing XIs

India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, B Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Karun Nair, Shardul Thakur, Ravindra Jadeja, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah.

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