Prior to the beginning of the fourth Test at Rose Bowl (Southampton), starting from Thursday (August 30), the five-match Test series between the hosts England and the visitors India is currently at an interesting position as the hosts are leading the series by 2-1 by the visitors are not too much away to catch the opponent.

Since the finishing of the third Test, the Indian camp seems more confident than the hosts as their most of batsmen are back in the form while their pacers are leading the side.

After some back-to-back disastrous batting performances in the first two Tests, Indian batsmen performed much better in the last Test at Trent Bridge that they secured a 203-run victory. However, the Indian batsmen still have to be more careful in some important places as they were the little bit lucky in several times in the last Test at Trent Bridge.

ALSO READ: Predicted XI Of India For The Southampton Test

While the skipper Virat Kohli is leading the side with the bat too, the dependable Test batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane’s recent positive intents with the bat are raising more problems for the hosts.

Meanwhile, Indian pacers are roaring in the suitable bowling conditions. With the time progresses in this Test series, the Indian spinners are hardly getting any opportunities.

In the addition, Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya impressed in the last Test with both bat and ball. It seems like Kohli will stay with same playing XI for the Southampton Test.

On the other hand, despite the England camp is leading this Test series, somehow it seems like their confidence has dropped down after losing the third Test. The main reason could be their out-of-form top-order batting and poor slip fielding – both were the responsible for England’s defeat in the last Test.

ALSO READ: Sam Curran To Play The Fourth Test In Southampton

England has to make the huge improvements in both parts and that too quickly, otherwise they can even suffer a surprising home Test series defeat after leading the series by 2-0.

Though the bowlers are putting strong performances, in the last Test, their bowling combination was under questions. Moreover, the hosts have got another hit as the all-rounder Chris Woakes is unfit to play the fourth Test who is in the good form in this Test series.

However, Sam Curran is making comeback in the playing XI for the Southampton Test who won the Player of the Match award in the first Test of this series due to the brilliant all-round performances.

Also, Ollie Pope has been dropped from the squad and another all-rounder Moeen Ali is returning in the playing XI.

Full Test Squads:

England: Joe Root (c), Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Jamie Porter, Sam Curran, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, James Vince.

India: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.

Some important stats preview prior to the fourth Test at Rose Bowl (Southampton)

• India has played only one Test at Rose Bowl (Southampton) in 2014, which was also the last Test at this venue and India lost that Test by 266 runs.
• Indian skipper Virat Kohli (5,994 runs) needs to score six more runs to complete his 6,000 Test runs. Kohli will become the 10th Indian Test batsman to achieve this feat.
• Indian left-handed opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan (99 international sixes) needs to hit one more six to complete his 100 sixes in international cricket.
• Indian pacer Ishant Sharma (249 Test wickets) is just one Test wicket away to complete his 250 Test wickets. Sharma will be the seventh Indian bowler and third Indian pacer to achieve this feat.
• English pacer James Anderson needs just seven more Test wickets to become the most Test wicket-taking bowler as a pacer. Having now 557 Test wickets, Anderson is looking to break the legendary Australian pacer Glenn McGrath’s record of 563 Test wickets. However, in overall, Anderson will be the fourth most Test wicket-taking bowler.