ENGvsIND: Ahead of the fourth test match against England at Kennington Oval, Virat Kohli led team India is expected to undergo a few changes from the previous playing11 to once again get back to winning ways. Team India went with the same combination, that worked for them in the second match at Lords, however, this time the results were not fruitful for the visitors. So, here is the possible combination of Team India.
The Indian top-order will remain intact with Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul once again opening the innings. Both the openers did a commendable job before the third test match and are expected to reiterate it. Rohit was sensational in the third test match as well, however, there was a fumble from KL Rahul in the Headingley Test.
Cheteshwar Pujara announced his comeback with a well made 91 in the second innings of the Headingley Test match. The Indian stalwart did manage to put some pressure on the opposition which he was at the rectangle.
In number four, Virat Kohli will remain while numbers five (Ajinkya Rahane) and six (Rishabh Pant) are also expected to go unchanged. Although a lot of tongues are trying to replace Ajinkya Rahane with Suryakumar Yadav or Hanuma Vihari in the playing11, experts believe that this is completely irrelevant.
Ajinkya Rahane is expected to be in the playing11 despite having a poor run of scores in the test series so far.
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Ravindra Jadeja has sustained a knee injury, however, the cricketer hasn’t done any severe damage to him. He is completely fit to play the fourth test match. It will be the decision of the management whether the team combination demand Jadeja’s services or not.
If the all-rounder is forced to warm benches, Shardul Thakur will come into the playing11. The pace all-rounder has abilities to extract swing from the surface and is a typical swing bowler.
The senior pacer Ishant Sharma is very unlikely to feature in the upcoming test matches. Sharma was ineffective in the last match and bowled with a below-par speed. Ravichandran Ashwin, who has warmed the bench till now, will definitely come in as his replacement.
Ashwin played his last test match for Surrey on the same ground (Kennington, Oval) where the fourth test match will be held and picked up a fifer.
The three seamers, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami and Mohammad Siraj, will conclude the test playing11 for India. The three have been an effective pair for the visitors in English conditions and the team would definitely love to have them for the services.
England and India will lock horns for the fourth test match on September 2 at Kennington Oval, London.
India’s Predicted Playing11 for the fourth test match against England:
Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli ©, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja/ Shardul Thakur, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj.
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