Sir Alastair Cook
Ex-England captain on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

When there is any doubt nowadays, teams usually choose to bowl. Whereas is in my generation, you would always choose to bat. The gut feeling for me, in this 30 degrees, is that bowling after lunch if you don't get the rewards is hard.

But if you do get the rewards it's worth it.

Kieran Parmley
Cricviz analyst

A good toss to win for England based on recent history at Headingley, the team that has bowled first has gone on to win the last six Test matches here.

The last time India played a Test here in 2021, they won the toss, opted to bat first and were bowled out for 78 in 40.4 overs, going on to lose by an innings and 76 runs.

Image source, Getty Images

Lots of the talk has been about which India players aren't here, namely two superstars in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

Both former captains have retired from Tests over the past couple of months, leaving a new-look side to face England.

Their new captain is the immensely talented Shubman Gill. This will be his first Test in charge.

Gill's record is a good one but not a great one, as you can see in this detailed breakdown. Will his own form stand up under the added weight of captaincy?

The big call from Brendon McCullum was whether to retain vice-captain Ollie Pope at number three or bring in the prodigious Jacob Bethell, who performed well in that slot on the winter tour of New Zealand.

Pope was in position for the one-off Test against Zimbabwe with Bethell at the IPL and England have stuck with the older man.

Meanwhile pace bowlers Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse return in place of Sam Cook and Gus Atkinson as the two changes from the Zimbabwe Test, with rotation among the seamers expected through the series.

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

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

India captain Shubman Gill: "We would have bowled first as well.

"Great day, the sun is out and it looks a good batting day for us. Preparation has been amazing, I think all the boys are feeling in a good space mentally and physically.

"Sai [Sudharsan] comes in for his debut. He's batting at number three."

England captain Ben Stokes: "We're going to have a bowl.

"Headingly is generally a good cricket wicket, we have had some good games here over the years so we will look to use the early conditions and get a bit out of it.

"This has been a long time coming, it feels strange that this is only the second Test match of the year. We are all excited and ready to go and walk out together.

"Our build-up has been mixed - we have had some lads playing county cricket, some getting their bodies ready. We have had three days of preparation so we are raring to go.

"We have the usual suspects in the top seven. Our bowling line-up is Woakes, Carse, Tongue, Bashir and myself."

Ben Stokes and new India captain Shubman Gill are out in the middle with Ravi Shastri for the toss and England's skipper has struck the first blow with a successful call.

His side are going to have a bowl.

Yes, this is the curtain raiser for a classic series of five Tests that will take us through to the beginning of August.

20 June - Headingley

2 July - Edgbaston

10 July - Lord's

23 July - Old Trafford

31 July - The Oval

Image source, Getty Images

Five Tests.

Seven weeks.

Two heavyweight Test sides.

The sun is shining at Headingley, we're here for a cracker of a series - strap yourselves in for the duration.