Understanding the basal texture initiation in a randomly-oriented AZ31B alloy during cold-rolling

•The basal texture initiation was investigated in the combination of experiment and simulation.•The orientation of extension twins distributes randomly after rolling.•The basal texture initiation is independent of twinning.•The interaction between the basal 〈a〉 and pyramidal 〈c + a〉 dislocations is responsible for the initiation of the basal texture.•The modified VPSC model reproduced the experimental results.