England squad for first Test against India announced, RCB and CSK stars included

England, on Thursday (June 5), announced their 14-player squad for the first Test of the upcoming five-match series against India.

The much-awaited series will get underway on June 20. The first Test is scheduled to be played at Headingley. The series will kickstart both the team's campaign in the fourth edition of the World Test Championship.

The last Test series between the two teams took place last year when England visited India for a five-match series. The Ben Stokes-led side won the first Test in Hyderabad before India bounced back in style and won the next four Tests.

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England have not lost a Test series at home against India since 2007 and will be desperate to maintain that record, while the tourists will be looking to register a famous series win.

Chris Woakes returns to England squad for 1st India Test

Veteran all-rounder Chris Woakes has also returned to the Test team after a long injury layoff. The fast-bowling allrounder suffered an injury while playing in SA20 in January and remained on the sidelines for close to four months. He finally returned to action last month during the game between Warwickshire and Worcestershire.

Woakes scored 50 runs in that game and picked up 6 wickets as well. He was expected to be a part of the squad for the one-off Test against Zimbabwe but was not included.

Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, and Jamie Overton have been included in the Test squad as well. All three of them did not play against Zimbabwe. From the squad that played against Zimbabwe, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, and James Rew have been dropped.

Bethell impressed in the IPL and recently scored 82 in the first ODI against the West Indies. On the other hand, Carse picked up 4 wickets in the three-match series while Overton picked up 3 wickets in the only ODI that he played against the Caribbean outfit.

Here is the England squad for the 1st Test:

Ben Stokes (C), Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes

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