England elect to bat; Munaf, Chawla make debut

Mohali, Mar 9 (UNI) England won the toss and chose to bat in the second Test against India, which was delayed by 45 minutes due to early morning rain, at the PCA Stadium here today.

India left out VVS Laxman, Mohd Kaif and S Sreesanth from the side that played in the first Test in Nagpur and brought in Yuvraj Singh.

Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla were also handed their debut caps. Kaif was made 12th man.

Meanwhile, England made only one change, bringing in right arm seamer Liam Plunkett in place of Ian Blackwell.

In spite of the delayed start, the first day will have 90 overs, with play to continue till 5.45 pm.

India: Rahul Dravid (Capt.), Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel England: Andrew Flintoff (Capt.), Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Geraint Jones, Liam Plunkett, Matthew Hoggard, Steve Harmison, Monty Panesar.

Umpires: Darrel Hair and Simon Taufel Third Umpire: Hariharan Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle UNI XC PDS MA DS1116