India elect to field, England to play three debutants

Mumbai, Mar 18 (UNI) Indian captain Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to field in the third and final Test against England at the Wankhede stadium here today.

England, who are trailing 1-0 in the three Test match series, suffered another injury blow in opener Alastair Cook who was ruled out due to a stomach ailment, joining Steve Harmison on the injured list.

Cook's injury has paved the way for Owais Shah to make his Test debut alongwith Shaun Udal and pace bowler James Anderson.

Three of them replace - Liam Plunkett, Steve Harmison and Cook from the side that played in Mohali.

India, on the other hand made one change by bringing in S Sreesanth in place of young leg spinner Piyush Chawla.

This is a momentous Test for two senior Indian players, with captain Rahul Dravid making his 100th appearance while Sachin Tendulkar becoming the most capped Indian player, beating Kapil Dev's record of 131 Test caps.

Teams: India: R Dravid (captain), Virender Sehwag, Wasim Jaffer, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Munaf Patel, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Irfan Pathan, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh and S Sreesanth.

England: Andrew Strauss, Owais Shah, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff (captain), Geraint Jones (wicketkeeper), Shaun Udal, Matthew Hoggard, James Anderson and Monty Panesar.

UNI GS/GK PM VC1022