The change of venue introduced no luck to Shubman Gill, because the India captain misplaced the toss for the fifth time within the sequence. England’s stand-in captain, Ollie Pope, opted to bowl first below the gloomy London skies at The Oval. India made 4 modifications to their taking part in XI for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy sequence finale, aiming to stage the competition 2-2.
This marked the fifteenth consecutive toss India misplaced in males’s worldwide cricket, with their final win coming in January this yr throughout a house T20I. It was additionally simply the 14th occasion in Take a look at historical past the place a workforce misplaced the toss in all 5 matches of a sequence—the one earlier instance within the twenty first century being India’s 2018 tour of England.
Whether or not as a consequence of frustration over his personal luck or the string of toss losses, Gill appeared confused when presenter and former India head coach Ravi Shastri requested about India’s modifications for the Oval Take a look at. “We have three modifications,” he stated. “Dhruv Jurel, Karun Nair, and Prasidh Krishna in for Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur, and Jasprit Bumrah.”
Nonetheless, the teamsheet revealed there was a fourth change. The 25-year-old forgot to say that Akash Deep, who was rested for the fourth recreation after choosing up a groin niggle within the Lord’s Take a look at earlier this month, was again within the XI rather than Anshul Kamboj, who had an underwhelming debut in Manchester.
The Oval Take a look at will likely be Jurel’s first look within the format since that includes within the Perth opener in opposition to Australia final November within the Border-Gavaskar Trophy sequence, preceded by the house sequence in opposition to England in February 2024. He got here in for Pant, who was dominated out of the finale with a fractured toe.
Bumrah has been rested, having met the factors of simply three appearances on the tour, which was determined firstly of the sequence in session with the BCCI medical workforce, so as to handle his workload. Though Gill had hinted that Arshdeep Singh may probably make his debut in London, India opted for expertise within the last recreation and handed Praisdh Krishna one other alternative.
‘Karun Nair will get a contemporary lease of life’
After being dropped from the taking part in XI for the fourth Take a look at at Previous Trafford, Nair returned to the XI as he changed Shardul Thakur. India opted for extra batting depth as a substitute of getting an additional bowler in Kuldeep Yadav. Returning to the Indian Take a look at workforce after eight years, Nair scored solely 133 runs within the first three matches, with out a single fifty-plus rating.
Talking on JioStar, former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar reckoned Nair has been given a 3rd alternative in his profession.
“When you may have two all-rounders who had a superb recreation within the earlier match, and right here you are taking part in with a mixture whereby you solely have 5 profitable choices, then I believe there may be little or no room to contemplate bringing in anyone like Kuldeep Yadav. So you possibly can very effectively perceive that. And having that batting depth, Karun Nair is getting a contemporary lease of life. I would say that cricket is now giving him the third alternative. We simply sincerely hope that he makes essentially the most of it,” he stated.
Groups:
India (Enjoying XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel(w), Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj
England (Enjoying XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope(c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton, Josh Tongue
