Ollie Pope has retained his place at No 3 in the England side to face India with Jacob Bethell left out of the XI for the first Test at Headingley.
Vice-captain Pope had been put under pressure after Bethell made an impressive introduction to Test cricket on the tour of New Zealand in the winter, with the Surrey batter sliding down the order to take the wicket-keeping gloves.
The youngster’s Indian Premier League (IPL) deal, however, delayed a decision with Bethell unavailable for the Zimbabwe Test and Pope seized his chance, joining top-three colleagues Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley in making a century at Trent Bridge.
And though the Warwickshire left-hander has returned to the squad ahead of the five-match series against India, Pope has retained his spot at first drop for the encounter in Leeds.
A fit-again Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse bolster the bowling attack in the two changes to the side fielded in Nottingham, with Josh Tongue completing the stock of specialist seamers.
Shoaib Bashir is again England’s spinner as Gus Atkinson, who is likely to miss the first two games with a hamstring injury, and Sam Cook drop out of the side.
India, meanwhile, have confirmed that new captain Shubman Gill will bat at No 4 as they start a new era after the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
KL Rahul is likely to partner Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top of the order with either Sai Sudharsan or Karun Nair taking the No 3 slot occupied by the new skipper on the tour of Australia. The other could yet slot in lower down the order.
England XI to face India at Headingley: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt.), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Josh Tongue, 11 Shoaib Bashir.
