The players are lining up in the sunshine for the national anthems. Alastair Cook has his pads on ready, and will need just two runs to reach 11,000 in Tests.

Jonathan Agnew
BBC Test Match Special

It's amazing this Test is going on at all, after the cyclone four days ago. There's still a lot of work going on, both inside and outside the ground.

App users may need to select ‘View more’ to see post.

Clear skies for the first two days, will the predicted showers on day five be a problem?

So seamer Ishant Sharma is back for India, replacing Bhuvneshwar Kumar, with diminutive leg-spinner Amit Mishra also drafted in, for Jayant Yadav.  

India: Murali Vijay,KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (capt), Karun Nair, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma.

England: Alastair Cook (capt), Keaton Jennings, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, Jake Ball.

Umpires are Australia's Simon Fry (standing in only his fifth Test) and the familiar figure of South Africa's Marais Erasmus. Fellow Aussie Bruce Oxenford is on TV replays.

India skipper Virat Kohli: "Winning the toss the pressure is always on the side who chooses to bat first. It looks like a good wicket but there is a bit of dampness and I think it is the best conditions for our bowlers. 

"It's important not to take the foot off the pedal and make sure we put the opponent under pressure. These are the sort of things that can make a Test team. Chennai is always a place where we love playing because the crowd knows what the team is trying to do."

(App users may need to select "view more" to see picture)

England captain Alastair Cook: "It's a good toss to win, so we're going to bat first. It looks a very good pitch considering what's happened here in the last week or so. I've never seen a pitch dried with coals before, maybe it's the future of pitch preparation!

"It's strange not having had a net before the game, but the guys have been hitting balls since the end of September."

It is quite an achievement to be playing at all in Chennai following the destruction of Cyclone Vardah, external at the start of the week. There have been some unusual methods employed to dry out the playing surface and you can read here about the lengths Test Match Special needed to go to to be able to broadcast., external

Image source, BBC Sport

Alastair Cook may not have won a match on this Test tour but he has won four of the five tosses and England will bat first.

So Liam Dawson makes his Test debut and Stuart Broad is fit to return, with the injured James Anderson, plus all-rounder Chris Woakes missing out. We'll have the toss in just a moment.

Remember when England posted 537 and had India at 361-6 after Virat Kohli hit wicket in the first Test at Rajkot? That was less than a month ago but although the series has gone and India lead 3-0, there are still many issues to resolve, with the hosts bidding to preserve their record as the only unbeaten Test side in 2016, having won eight and drawn three.

(App users may need to select "view more" to see post)

Hampshire spinner Liam Dawson will make his Test debut for England and has received his cap from Test Match Special summariser Vic Marks. The 26-year-old Dawson, who has played one ODI and one T20, is cap number 676 for England. Victor was number 499.

England supporters would love 20 India wickets in Chennai for Christmas, but are they more likely to receive a pair of socks? let's find out as we welcome you to day one of our coverage of the final Test between India and England from the MA Chidambaram Stadium.