England vs India, 5th Test Preview

Series Situation

The series between England and India is poised to end all square at The Oval, with the two teams locked at 2-2. The final Test will be a crucial one, with both teams eager to claim a win and take the series.

Weather Forecast

The weather at The Oval is expected to be overcast, with light rain forecast on at least three days, including the opener. This could lead to a more even contest between the seamers and the batsmen.

Pitch Conditions

The pitch at The Oval is expected to have a lot more live grass than the other wickets in the series, which could assist the seamers. England have also dropped their specialist spinner, which could lead to a more attacking approach from the hosts.

Team News

England will be without their talismanic captain Ben Stokes, who has been ruled out with injury. Ollie Pope will lead the team in his place, with Gus Atkinson and Jamie Overton returning to the XI after building up their workloads in a second XI game and a county fixture, respectively. Jofra Archer has also been left out due to back-to-back Tests being deemed a stretch at this stage of his belated return.

India, on the other hand, will be without Rishabh Pant, who has been injured. Dhruv Jurel will replace him in the XI, while Akash Deep is set to return and Bumrah is likely to be rested.

Probable XIs

England:

• Zak Crawley
• Ben Duckett
• Ollie Pope (c)
• Joe Root
• Harry Brook
• Jacob Bethell
• Jamie Smith (wk)
• Chris Woakes
• Gus Atkinson
• Jamie Overton
• Josh Tongue

India:

• Yashasvi Jaiswal
• KL Rahul
• Sai Sudharsan
• Shubman Gill (c)
• Washington Sundar
• Ravindra Jadeja
• Dhruv Jurel (wk)
• Shardul Thakur
• Akash Deep
• Prasidh Krishna/Arshdeep Singh
• Mohammed Siraj

Key Statistics

• India have two wins (1971 and 2021) from 15 Tests at The Oval.
• Shubman Gill needs 89 runs to beat Sir Don Bradman's record of 810 runs in Ashes 1936/37 – the most for anyone in a debut series as captain.
• Joe Root has two hundreds at The Oval, both against India – 149* in 2014 and 125 in 2018.

Quotes

• "Yeah, it's been a tough, gruelling series, but it's class to play. It's a real test of character, it's a test of physicality, all that kind of stuff. And I think that the way in which both teams have, you know, fronted up every single day and every single session and given everything for their countries is testament to how much this format means to England and India and every other team in the world." – Ben Stokes
• "If you look at the kind of cricket that we have played, sometimes the scorecard of the series doesn't determine that. I think every match that we have played, it was very difficult to decide which team is going to win after four days of cricket. If we are able to do that for every match, for four matches coming outside of India with a relatively young team, I think it is going to be a big achievement for us if we are able to level the series. And the series has been a great learning curve for me. You know, there are some things that you can only learn from experience. And I've learned so much from these four matches that we have played. And hopefully, we are going to finish on a high." – Shubman Gill