Why Are The Players Wearing Black Armbands? The India vs England Test series 2025, for the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy, got underway on Friday, June 20th, at the beautiful Headingley in Leeds, where the sky was blue but also had enough clouds to keep the pacers interested.

England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl first. The last six Tests at Headingley have been won by the team that bowled first, including the famous Ashes 2019 Test here in which Ben Stokes produced one of the greatest Test innings of all time.

The pitch that has some grass initially and the conditions help the seamers considerably on day 1 at Headingley before the surface flattens out and becomes good to bat on.

India enter a new era with Shubman Gill as the captain and without Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and R Ashwin in the side.

Sai Sudharsan received his debut Test cap, and he is slotted in to bat at No. 3, with Shubman Gill moving to the No. 4 spot, which was previously occupied by Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar before him. Returning to the Test XI after seven years is Karun Nair, while Shardul Thakur, a pace-bowling all-rounder, also made his comeback after missing the BGT 2024-25 due to injury. Thakur’s return to the side meant there was no place for Nitish Kumar Reddy, a batting all-rounder.

Meanwhile, players of both teams were seen with black armbands today.

India vs England 1st Test: Why Are The Players Wearing Black Armbands?

Both India and England players are wearing black armbands on day 1 of the first Test as a mark of respect to those who died in the plane crash in Ahmedabad earlier this month. Both teams also stood in a minute of silence before the national anthems.

India vs England Playing XI for 1st Test:

India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (W), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mhammed Sirj, Prassidh Krishidh

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

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