The hosts England and the visitors’ Indian cricket teams have started to play the final Test of the five-match Test series at The Oval (London).
Prior to this Test match, England has already secured the Test series as they are leading the series by 3-1. However, the English skipper Joe Root still unchanged their playing XI from the last Test at Southampton while the Indian skipper Virat Kohli made two changes in the playing XI as Ravindra Jadeja and the debutant Hanuma Vihari replaced Ravichandran Ashwin and Hardik Pandya. In the addition, Jonny Bairstow has returned to the wicketkeeping job after recovering from the injury.
It is the final international cricket match for the English opener Alastair Cook. The left-handed opening batsman has a long international career after making his debut for England in 2006. Before this Test, Cook has played 160 Tests, 92 ODIs and four T20Is for England national cricket team.
The 33-year-old has achieved the numerous records in international cricket, especially in Test cricket as he has dominated in that special format. The left-handed batsman has already scored 12,254 runs in Test cricket with the average of 44.88, including 32 centuries and 56 half-centuries. His highest Test innings knock is 294 against India at Birmingham in 2011.
The whole England team is ready to give him a memorable farewell with a victory in the final Test while the no.1 Test ranked Indian cricket team is desperate to beat the hosts and tried to salvage some pride.
Playing XI:
England – Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Moeen Ali, Joe Root (C), Jonny Bairstow (WK), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, Jimmy Anderson.
India – Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
Here are some Twitter reactions:
Hanuma Vihari has indeed been given the India Cap….#292. Go well. No news on Shaw though….he’ll have to wait till 4th Oct. #EngvInd
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) September 7, 2018
Faith is good but blind faith in Dhawan & Rahul is strange. @RaviShastriOfc is the worst thing happened to this Indian team. Karun Nair deserved to be in the playing XI. #ENGvIND #asktheexpert @SonyLIV
— Ankit Sinha (@imasinha) September 7, 2018
Hardik Pandya going out of the playing XI is the latest best thing happening to Indian Test cricket while Ashwin needs to sort out his grip, action & accuracy further. #EngvInd
— aNuP (@anupsjaiswal) September 7, 2018
How many indian batsmen has scored triple hundreds in tests?
Only 2. @virendersehwag (2) & @karun126 (1)
Then why no one is talking about the possibilty of #KarunNair in playing XI.@BCCI @RaviShastriOfc do you have answers to this question ?
Why he is in the squad ?#ENGvIND— Shailender gupta (@shail2601) September 7, 2018
While doing commentatary Sunil Gavaskar is aking too many questions on Indian team management on not picking #KarunNair in playing XI… #ENGvIND #SonySix
— Immu (@ImranSid_) September 7, 2018
If Hanuma Vihari was picked ahead of Karun Nair because the team management thinks he has a better defensive technique, I support the selection. Cricket merit over protocol any day for me.#ENGvsIND
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) September 7, 2018
It’s quite intriguing that no one is talking about the possibility of playing Karun Nair…If India wants to play 6 batsmen, he should be the first choice. If bowling a little is the deal-breaker, it’s another matter… #EngvInd
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) September 7, 2018
So now you perhaps realize Hanuma Vihari has been picked because he also bowls decent off spin
— Gautam Bhattacharya (@gbsaltlake) September 7, 2018
India's selectors have just made a damning statement of what they think of Karun Nair as a player. Very very hard on him. Would love to know what he was told when the team was announced.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 7, 2018
The Jadeja inclusion may now be a fact overseas. In Australia also there will be wickets with rough which he may exploit. And his fielding. Much as i like Ashwin this is a telling selection.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) September 7, 2018
