After some disappointing performances against the hosts England in the fourth Test at The Rose Bowl (Southampton), Indian skipper and the team management are ready to make some changes in the playing XI for the last Test of the series at The Oval (London), starting from this Friday (September 7). It seems like the 18-year-old top-order batsman Prithvi Shaw is going to make his international cricket debut.

The Southampton Test was the must-win game for Indian cricket team as they were already behind by 2-1 in the five-match Test series. The fourth Test was not a good team game for the Indian cricket team as some players disappointed with their performances that hugely hurt the team and they lost the game by 60 runs. That defeat also finished India’s chances to save this Test series as England team is leading the series by 3-1.

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Indian batsman KL Rahul has disappointed in this entire Test series. He has played all the four Tests in this series and has scored only 113 runs in eight innings with the average of just 14.12. The right-handed batsman has crossed the 20-run mark only twice in this Test series. Though Rahul is brilliant at the slip fielding in this Test series, he is likely to sit down for the last Test of the series and the young Prithvi Shaw is the possible replacement of him.

Initially, Shaw was not in the Test squad. After the third Test at Trent Bridge, Shaw and Hanuma Vihari replaced Murali Vijay and Kuldeep Yadav for the last two Tests of this tour. Earlier in this year, Shaw led the India U-19 cricket team that won the 2018 ICC U-19 Cricket World Cup.

Recently, he toured in England with the India A team where they played some List A and first-class matches and Shaw impressed with his batting performances in all those matches. So, he is likely to get a lucky call for the upcoming fifth Test of this series.

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Meanwhile, the off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin also has a chance to be dropped out in the fifth Test. While the 31-year-old disappointed with the ball during the Southampton Test, where the pitch was much spin-friendly, he is also suffering the groin injury since the third Test of the series. If Ashwin has been dropped out in the fifth Test, that means the left-arm spinner and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is going to make a comeback in the international cricket.