Leaving out Sam was one of most difficult decisions: Root

England captain Joe Root today welcomed all-rounder Ben Stokes into the playing eleven but said leaving out the promising Sam Curran for the third Test against India was one of his "most difficult" selection decisions.

Stokes will return to international cricket after being deemed 'not guilty' by a Bristol court on charges of affray.

Curran will miss out as the hosts look to press their 2-0 advantage over in the five-match series.

"It's probably one of the most difficult selections I've had to make as captain," Root told reporters at the pre-match press conference.

"Sam misses out Ben comes into the side. The difficult part is the fact that everyone is performing so well. I think some people would see that as the easy option, to leave Sam out.

"But he's offered so much to this bowling group - and at the start of the series I said to the team for us to win a five-match series against the best side in the world, it's going to take more than just 11 players."
"You don't want to leave someone like Ben out. He offers so much to this group on and off the field. He is a big part of our team."
About Curran, Root added, "It's about us as a squad performing collectively for five games, and he's played a massive part in the first two. It might be that he comes back in later on. On this occasion, he's unfortunate to miss out. But what he's done so far has been nothing short of high-class."
"You're talking about two of the all-time great bowlers. Whether it happens now or further down the line, I think there's no disputing that Jimmy is one of the best bowlers of all time not just in this current generation, but since the game began."
"At Lord's again a very challenging surface to bat on as you could see from the first innings. I think the runs the guys got in context of everything else that happened on that first day's play was all quite relevant."
The star batsman added, "I'm not concerned about it at all. We have some very talented players in our top order, some exciting young players and some good experience as well so I think a big strength of ours is we bat low down."