England skipper Michael Vaughan won the toss and, as expected, decided to bat in the first Test against India at Lord's on Thursday.
England, already without experienced pace bowlers Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison because of injury, suffered a further setback when right arm medium pacer Matthew Hoggard was ruled out after hurting his back in training.
His absence meant Chris Tremlett, and not Stuart Broad, who claimed 5 for 76 for England Lions in the warm-up match, will make his Test debut.
India chose to go in with opener Wasim Jaffer despite his poor showing in the tour matches against Sussex and England Lions, while stylish Hyderabadi batsman VVS Laxman was given preference over the in-form Yuvraj Singh.
Anil Kumble is the lone spinner in the side.
Teams:
England: Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Michael Vaughan (capt), Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell, Matt Prior (wk), Chris Tremlett, Ryan Sidebottom, James Anderson, Monty Panesar.
India: Wasim Jaffer, Dinesh Karthik, Rahul Dravid (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, M S Dhoni (wk), Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, R P Singh, Sreesanth.