Ahmedabad: England captain Joe Root has won the toss and elected to bat against India, on Day 1 of the fourth and final Test match, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
While the hosts are high on confidence with back-to-back commanding victories, all is not lost for the Joe Root-led side who still have a chance to draw the series.
A similar surface to the last is widely anticipated for this Test and, from a result perspective, that ought to serve India reasonably well, even if Joe Root’s remarkable bowling figures are a reminder that they’ll also need to bat better to guard against mishaps. Temperatures forecast in the high 30s Celsius throughout makes for one certainty, it’ll be a scorcher.
India (Playing XI) – Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (WK), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj (IN PLACE OF JASPRIT BUMRAH).
England (Playing XI) – Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root (C), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Ben Foakes (WK), Dan Lawrence (IN PLACE OF JOFRA ARCHER), Dom Bess (IN PLACE OF STUART BROAD), Jack Leach, James Anderson.
(Two changes for the visitors, as Dan Lawrence and Dom Bess come in for Stuart Broad and Jofra Archer. For India, Jasprit Bumrah misses out and Mohammed Siraj comes in to replace him.)
