Hyderabad, Jan 25 (Reporter) England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bat first in the first of the five-match Test series against India at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Thursday. India captain Rohit Sharma is playing Axar Patel as his third spinner. He will be lending support to Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. KS Bharat has been included as specialist wicketkeeper and KL Rahul has replaced Virat Kohli as No.4 batsman. Sharma has left out Kuldeep Yadav, the fourth Indian spinner in the squad. "We thought a lot about it. Axar, whenever he had played, he has done well and bats well in these conditions. He got some really good scores the last time we played against Australia. Probably the reason we went with Axar," he said. For England, Tom Hartley is making his Test debut. The hosts are looking to bust the record of England, not losing a series since Stokes took charge as Test captain and Brendon McCullum as head coach. England are 32/0 with Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett batting on 15 each after 7 overs. Teams India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj. England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes(c), Ben Foakes(w), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, Jack Leach...////...