India vs England: Pitch for the first Test moist, spinners might not get assistance

The first Test between India and England in Edgbaston may see the pitch not helping the spinners as much as the experts predicted ahead of the encounter.

There has been a lot of build up, plenty of speculations, and then there have been a plethora of controversies. But when in England, the weather trumps them all. For all the dry heat which hogged headlines over the past months, rain made an appearance in Birmingham, and the pitch appears to be moist sprinkled with patches of grass.

A look at the Edgbaston pitch ahead of the first Test match between India and England. (Twitter/George Dobell)

There were debates and rants, there were names slapped to opinions, but after all the smokescreen, England picked Adil Rashid as the lone spinner in the team ahead of Moeen Ali. Perhaps the biggest indication about the nature of the pitch.

India had to cancel their first practice session in Birmingham owing to rains, the pitch which will define not only the teams, but in many ways the series has to be observed closely.

Will India go for the more flamboyant option of Kuldeep Yadav to assist R Ashwin and trust Hardik Pandya to chip in as the fifth bowling option, or will they persist with the more stable option of playing three genuine seamers?

There are enough questions for the management to answer and with the fleeting English weather their jobs become all the more tricky. While Virat Kohli looked calm and focused on the eve of the Test match, he will know that how he picks his eleven will determine the approach of the team.