NOTTINGHAM, England - England captain Joe Root won the toss and elected to bat in the first test against India at Trent Bridge on Wednesday.

The hosts left out spinner Jack Leach, opting for a seam-only attack in the first match of the five-test series, which also marks beginning of the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle.

"It's not the prettiest wicket but should play reasonably well," Root said at the toss.

With Ben Stokes taking an indefinite break from the game prioritising his mental health, England brought back fellow all-rounder Sam Curran and batsman Jonny Bairstow.

India captain Virat Kohli said he too wanted to bat first on this surface.

"Looks like a good track and the sun's out. It's going to be a good day of test cricket," said Kohli whose team lost the inaugural WTC final against New Zealand in Southampton in June.

For India, KL Rahul will partner Rohit Sharma at the top of the batting order after first choice opener Shubman Gill returned home with a shin injury and Mayank Agarwal was ruled out of the test having suffered a blow to his helmet in training.

India dropped off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin with all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja being their lone spin option.

Teams:

India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

England: Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Root (captain), Jonny Bairstow, Dan Lawrence, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Sam Curran, Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Christian Radnedge) ((amlan.chakraborty@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @Amlan_Reuters))