Spinner Kuldeep Yadav was ignored once again as India made four changes to their playing XI for the fifth and final Test against England at The Oval on Thursday. Batter Karun Nair, who was dropped for the Manchester Test last week, was recalled to the side, alongside pacer Prasidh Krishna, who has missed the last two matches after underwhelming shows at Leeds and Edgbaston, respectively. Dhruv Jurel will take over wicketkeeping duties, with Rishabh Pant ruled out due to a toe fracture. Shardul Thakur has been dropped while pace spearhead Japrit Bumrah was rested owing to workload concerns.
Anshul Kamboj, who made his debut in Manchester, has been dropped. He was replaced by Akash Deep, who also returns after recovering from an injury scare.
“Don’t mind losing the toss as long as we win the game. 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. We’ve got three changes. Jurel, Karun and Prasidh in for Pant, Shardul and Bumrah. We look for a win every game we play, we’ve come close and it’s about that 5-10% extra push, boys will be giving it their all,” India captain Shubman Gill, who lost his fifth straight toss of the tour, said in the middle.
“We’ll bowl. Bit overcast, no-brainer to have a bowl on this pitch. Lost the captain but the others are tracking nicely, we’ve got a few fresh faces as well. We bat deep, Gus Atkinson and Overton have got runs. We’re not going to contend with 2:2, we want to go out there and win it,” said Ollie Pope, who repalced the injured Ben Stokes as captain for the game.
England XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (capt), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton, Josh Tongue
India XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, B Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (capt), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj
