Both sides will be without some of the big names who we have become accustomed to seeing in England and India Test clashes with James Anderson, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli all now retired from this format.
There will still be plenty of familiar faces on show in Leeds with Joe Root likely to be the key batter for the hosts at his home county ground and Chris Woakes leading the bowling attack at a venue where he is yet to go wicketless in eight Test innings and where he returned figures of 3-73 and 3-68 against Australia in 2023.
India will be led by Shubman Gill and also have the vast experience of KL Rahul in their batting line-up while pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who will have his workload managed across the series and will miss two of the five Tests, is raring to go.
With an Ashes series appearing on the horizon, the next ten Tests are set to determine the legacy of so-called ‘Bazball’ cricket, but these first five Tests in the newly minted Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy promise to be much more than just a starter for the entrée to come in Australia.
Why England can win
After winning just one of six Tests (L4, D1) in Leeds from 2008 to 2015, England have managed to turn Headingley into something of a fortress, beating Pakistan, India, New Zealand and Australia twice across their last five Headingley Tests since 2018.
The hosts have also had an excellent start to their home summer, beating Zimbabwe in a one-off Test and then whitewashing West Indies across three ODIs and three T20Is to banish the memory of their painful start to the year which saw only one victory across eight white ball games in India and losses in all three of their fixtures at the ICC Champions Trophy.
As is their style, England announced their XI on Wednesday, opting to keep faith with vice–captain Ollie Pope at number three which keeps Jacob Bethell out of the side.
This also means that Ben Stokes’ team will have a top three of Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley and Pope, who all made centuries in the innings victory over Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge.
Sam Cook, who made his debut in that Test, misses out with Woakes returning in his place and the injured Gus Atkinson is replaced by Brydon Carse who averages an impressive 19.85 with the ball across ten Test match innings.
Why India can win
Although this India side will be without Rohit and Kohli, there will still be plenty of fearless run-makers in the batting line-up.
Rahul, who made scores of 116 and 51 for India A against England Lions earlier this month, will open with Yashasvi Jaiswal who top scored across both sides in their last H2H series, hitting 712 runs.
Captain Gill will bat at number four with his vice-captain Rishabh Pant at five which leads Karun Nair and Sai Sudharsan fighting it out for the number three slot.
Nair played the last of his six Tests in March 2017 but had already made a score of 303 not out against England in his second Test! He also enjoyed a game against England Lions earlier this month, making 204.
Sudharsan is yet to play a Test but no one doubts his talent after he took the Orange Cap in this year’s IPL with 759 runs.
With the ball, Bumrah will lead the attack alongside Mohammed Siraj and due to the heatwave engulfing the UK at the moment, India could be tempted to go for the more attacking option of left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav who took seven wickets in his last H2H Test ahead of Washington Sundar who would provide more batting depth.
Venue and conditions
Across the eight Tests at Headingley from 2015 onwards, only two have been won by the team batting first. Making runs first up has also been an issue with only two sides making a score of 300+ across the last decade.
Cloudy conditions are forecast for much of the opening three days with some rain expected on days two and three, so it could well be that the overheads favour the bowlers and with the likes of Woakes and Bumrah on show, they could well take advantage!
Match stats
• Zak Crawley averaged 40.70 across the five Test series in India last year and has been in fine form in the T20 Blast with scores of 37, 57, 46 and 75* following his 124 vs Zimbabwe.
• Rishabh Pant averages 84.33 across his last three Test innings against England, all in England.
• Joe Root’s highest Test score at Headingley (121) came vs India in August 2021.
• Shoaib Bashir bowling to Ravindra Jadeja: 2/7 from 61 balls.
• Jasprit Bumrah vs Ben Duckett in Tests: 1-63 from 94 balls.