Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test against India in Bulawayo on Tuesday.

India surprisingly left out Mohammad Kaif, their best batsmen in the recent one-day series, in favour of Yuvraj Singh [Images].

Seamer Laxmipathy Balaji has a knee injury and was left out as India went into the match with two spinners and two pace bowlers.

Zimbabwe handed Test debuts to batsmen Charles Coventry and Terrence Duffin. They replace Stuart Carlisle and Craig Wishart, who had their contracts cancelled after the second test against New Zealand [Images] last month following a dispute with the board.

Zimbabwe brought in off spinner Gavin Ewing for leg spinner Graeme Cremer. Prosper Utseya was originally named in the side but withdrew on Tuesday after being stung by a swarm of bees.

All-rounder Andy Blignaut replaced seamer Christopher Mpofu and Heath Streak is fit to play for Zimbabwe after an operation to remove a blood clot in his leg 10 days ago.

Teams:

Zimbabwe: Dion Ebrahim, Terrence Duffin, Brendan Taylor, Tatenda Taibu (captain), Hamilton Masakadza, Charles Coventry, Heath Streak, Andy Blignaut, Keith Dabengwa, Gavin Ewing, Blessing Mahwire.

India: Virender Sehwag [Images], Gautam Gambhir [Images], Rahul Dravid [Images], Vangipurappu Laxman, Saurav Ganguly [Images] (captain), Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Kaarthick, Anil Kumble [Images], Irfan Pathan [Images], Harbhajan Singh [Images], Zaheer Khan [Images]