LONDON: England men have named their playing XI for the rescheduled fifth Test against India starting at Edgbaston on Friday.
The Three Lions make one change to the side that won the third Test against New Zealand at Headingley, with James Anderson returning to the side in place of Jamie Overton, despite Overton’s vital 97 on Test debut at Headingley last week.
Ben Foakes has been ruled out after failing to recover in time from the Covid diagnosis that caused him to miss the second half of England’s seven-wicket victory.
India are on the brink of securing their first Test series victory in England since 2007. However, they face an England side riding high on momentum under the new leadership of coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.
They swept New Zealand, the reigning ICC World Test Championship winners, 3-0 at home while India will only have played one warm-up match against Leicestershire heading into the Test.
England have adopted a high-risk, high-reward strategy under McCullum and Stokes, a move that helped them secure convincing victories against New Zealand. Sam Billings, who was called up as England’s first official Covid substitute, retains his place for his third Test cap.
England Men’s Team v India: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Sam Billings (w), Matthew Potts, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, and James Anderson.
India’s Test squad vs England: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna and Mayank Agarwal. (ANI)