India will be locking horns with England for the last time in the rescheduled game of the five-match Test series between them. 4 of the 5 games were played last year itself, and the last one was rescheduled and now it will commence on the 1st of July at 15:00 IST at the Edgbaston in Birmingham. The first Test match of this series ended with a draw.
After that, India pulled off a brilliant win at Lord’s as they had won the game by 151 runs and got a 1-0 lead in the series. In the third game, the England side made a comeback and defeated India one-sidedly by an innings and 76 runs. After losing the third match in a dominating manner, Team India made a strong comeback and hunted down the hosts by 157 runs to maintain their lead in this series.
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In the last match of this series, India will be looking for another win to clinch the series while England will look to beat them to level the series. With everything at stake, another massive game of cricket is anticipated here between these two exciting teams of the longest format of the game.
England
The hosts have already finalized their playing XI for the much-awaited game, as they have been doing of late under the new leadership group. Ben Foakes misses out due to Covid and Sam Billings takes his place whereas Jamie Overton makes had to make way for the veteran seamer, James Anderson.
Playing XI: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes(c), Sam Billings(w), Matthew Potts, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, James Anderson
India
The Indian team has witnessed a lot of ups and downs since the 4th Test of the series. Jasprit Bumrah will lead the side in the absence of Rohit Sharma, who’s been ruled out after yet another positive Covid test. There’s no Ishant Sharma in the squad and Cheteshwar Pujara is expected to come in place of the injured KL Rahul at the top, even though Mayank Agarwal has been flown in as cover.
Two days out from the game, head coach Rahul Dravid confirmed that R Ashwin, who joined the team late in the UK after a bout of Covid, is fit and available for selection but India is likely to go with Jadeja and Thakur as the two all-rounders, much like they did in 2021.
Probable XI: Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah(c), Mohammed Siraj
Fantasy XI suggestion 1:
Rishabh Pant, Jonny Bairstow, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ollie Pope, Joe Root (c), Ravindra Jadeja (vc), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ben Stokes, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Stuart Broad
Fantasy XI suggestion 2:
Jonny Bairstow (c), Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Alex Lees, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), James Anderson
