And Stokes decides that the bowling will be opened by …himself.
Ben Stokes leads England outas Jerusalem rings out around Trent Bridge. The stands look about half-full.
India’s captain for the Test tour of England will be … Shubman Gill. The board must have been tempted to appoint the great Jasprit Bumrah, but they’ve decided to let him concentrate on knocking the stumps over.
Gill, who opens the batting, has strong credentials after leading Gujarat Titans to the top of this year’s IPL table (and averaging 50 himself). He has captained India five times in T20s but never in a Test. At 25 he is on the young side for a Test captain and his deputy will be Rishabh Pant, who’s 27, so this is a fresh start for India following the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
There are still a couple of veterans in the 18-man squad in Ravi Jadeja and KL Rahul. But Mohammed Shami has been left out as he makes his way back from injury, so English crowds will miss out on some sumptuous swing bowling.
Full squad: Shubman Gill (capt), Rishabh Pant (vice-capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Druv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
Morning everyone and welcome to the third day of the men’s international summer. Is anybody old enough to remember when Test cricket was a slow process?
This match is moving fast even by modern standards. The first day was all about runs, as England piled up 498, including 200 after tea. The second day was all about wickets, 14 of them spread across three innings. Even Brian Bennett, who bagged the headlines with his fearless hundred, found time to get out twice.
The upshot is that Zimbabwe need another 270 runs to make England bat again. And England need another seven wickets to wrap up an innings victory. It could be all over by lunchtime, as long as the rain holds off.
Even in a Test mismatch there are plenty of sub-plots. Can Ben Curran, already the only member of his talented family with an international century, make one in a Test? Can Sam Cook use the cloud cover to show that medium-fast bowling still matters? Can Shoaib Bashir keep taking just enough Test wickets to stay in the team, or is he just keeping a place warm for Jacob Bethell? Can Sean Williams continue to rattle along at two runs a ball? We shall see.
Play starts at 11am BST, weather permitting.