Reading are without the injured Matt Mills, Jobi McAnuff and Shane Long, and have have included Jordan Obita, 16, and Lawson D'Ath, 17, in their squad.
Alex McCarthy, Mikkel Andersen, Jake Taylor, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Hal Robson-Kanu and Simon Church are all away on international duty.
MATCH FACTS
Head-to-head
• Reading have won 34 and Torquay 17 of the 77 previous matches between these clubs.
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• Reading won the most recent meeting 6-1 in the old Third Division in April 1992. It took the Royals' total of goals in competitive matches against the Gulls since 1925 to 150.
• The only previous time they have met in the League Cup was in the first round in 1988, in which Reading prevailed 4-1 on aggregate.
Torquay
• Torquay's only victory in this competition since 1997 was a 2-0 win at Bournemouth in the first round in August 2001.
• Defeat by Reading would make it their third successive exit at the hands of a Championship club.
Reading
• Reading have not lost their opening League Cup tie since 2002.
• They have scored 24 goals in nine ties since since being beaten by Arsenal in November 2005.
Source: BBC Sport
Source: BBC Sport