The fourth Test match between England and India commenced at Kennington Oval in London. The series is level at 1-1 after the first three matches of the five-game series. England bounced back in the Leeds after losing the Lord’s Test.
Indian players were seen wearing black armbands during the opening day of the fourth Test. They did in the memory of former Ranji player and famous Mumbai coach Vasoo Paranjape who died recently aged 82.
Also Read: Vasoo Paranjape, coach of Sunil Gavaskar and Rohit Sharma, passes away
Vasoo Paranjape is known for developing careers of Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma along with many others. He was very smart with his coaching skills and was known around the cricketing circuits in Mumbai.
His son, Jatin Paranjape, played four One-Day Internationals for India in 1998.
During the third Test of the series, England players were seen wearing the black armband after the passing away of former England skipper Ted Dexter.
On the match’s front, Joe Root won the toss and elected to bowl first at The Oval. He mentioned the overhead condition and a tinge of grass on the pitch behind his decision of bowling first. He named two changes in England’s playing XI – Chris Woakes and Ollie Pope came in place of Sam Curran and Jos Buttler.
Also Read: Virat Kohli feels India has become a team that everyone wants to beat
On the other hand, Virat Kohli also admitted he would have bowled first as well. India made two changes in the fourth Test. Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami got niggles and are replaced by Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur.
Both teams will try to win this game in order to take an assailable lead in the five-match series.
England Playing XI: Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (c), Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Craig Overton, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
