Revealed! Why India and England wearing black armbands during the first Test at Yorkshire Cricket Ground in Leeds

The first Test of the five-match series between India and England is set to begin in a few moments from now and is being contested at the Yorkshire Cricket Ground located in Leeds. This match will also mark the beginning of the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle so it will be quite important for both the sides.

Notably, both the teams are wearing black armbands to honour the victims of the Ahmedabad plane crash that took the lives of 241 people on June 12, Thursday. Both the teams will also be observing a minute's silence before the match for the same reason.

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The tragedy occurred when Air India Flight AI-171 that was bound for London, ended up crashing into a medical complex shortly after taking flight from Ahmedabad. Only one person was able to survive the fatal crash, but he too was left with serious injuries.

Hours after the crash, Tata Sons announced a generous compensation of INR 1 crore to the families of each victim. Later, on June 14, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson stated that the company would make a compensation of INR 25 Lakh to the families of the deceased in addition to the compensation of INR 1 crore.

England have won the toss in the first Test

Meanwhile, coming to the match, the toss was won by England skipper Ben Stokes, who elected to bowl first. This was quite a predictable decision as the pitch at Headingley is known to heavily favour the seamers. It will be interesting to see how the Indian batting order, which is now without both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, will fare against England's bowling attack. 

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Following the match at Headingley, the action will move to Birmingham where the second Test will commence from July 2. The third Test will be played at the iconic Lord's stadium in London and will begin from July 10. The fourth encounter of the series will be held in Manchester and will commence from July 23 and lastly, the series finale will take place at the Oval from July 31.

England's playing XI for first Test: Ben Stokes (c), Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, ⁠Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.

India's playing XI for first Test: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.