Specialist spinner Kuldeep Yadav has once again missed out in the India playing XI for the fifth and last Test of the ENG vs IND series. Captain Shubman Gill announced three changes ahead of the match at The Oval, London. On the other hand, Ollie Pope will be leading England in place of Ben Stokes.
At the coin toss, England won the toss and chose to bowl first. Both teams have made multiple changes. Jacob Bethell is added to the playing combination to replace the injured Stokes. Jofra Archer is also sitting out, while Jamie Overton comes in.
Gill said, “We’ve got three changes. Jurel, Karun, and Prasidh in for Pant, Shardul, and Bumrah.”
Additionally, Anshul Kamboj was replaced, too, by Akash Deep.
England lead the series 2-1. If India wins this match, they will be able to draw the series.
The conditions at The Oval are overcast, and the wicket is quite green. Earlier, the pitch was kept under the covers due to rain. This may help the seamers pick up wickets.
Gill also mentioned at the coin toss, “Was a bit confused yesterday about what to do, was a bit overcast but the wicket looks good, we’ll look to post good runs in the first innings. Should be a good pitch for the bowlers.”
India’s playing combination for this Test contains three seamers and two all-rounders with spin-bowling assists in Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar. Both players have taken seven wickets each in this series.
As of now, Kuldeep has not played in any of the five-match Test series. Instead, all-rounders have been preferred for batting depth.
Earlier, in the pre-match press conference, the batting coach Sitanshu Kotak addressed the media on benching Kuldeep for the course of the series.
“Just like you need to take 20 wickets, it’s equally important to score 550-600 runs. If we focus more on bowling and less on batting, it depends on the wicket conditions. When you play with 5 bowlers, all of them bowl. If you play with 6 bowlers, some will bowl less. If the sixth bowler is an all-rounder, he will contribute both in batting and bowling. If he is a pure bowler who bowls less, after the match, you might think an extra batter would have made a difference. It’s easy to analyse post-match, but before the match, you have to look at the team’s balance. We aim to maintain the best balance,” he said.
The top five wicket-takers from this tourney share 67 wickets among them. Stokes leads the charts with 17, followed by Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj with 14 wickets each. Akash Deep and Josh Tongue have 11 dismissals each to their name. England’s spinner Shoaib Bashir snared 10 wickets before being ruled out of the series due to an injury.
Kuldeep, with 56 wickets from 13 Tests, could’ve been an experienced addition in the playing XI. However, keeping the conditions in mind, the captain has favoured a player with all-round credentials.
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India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (w), Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, and Mohammed Siraj.
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Smith (w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton, and Josh Tongue.
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