The fourth Test match of the Pataudi Trophy between England and India will be played on Thursday, 2nd September, at Oval, London.
England high on confidence after the win at Leeds
After a 151-run embarrassing loss at Lord’s in the second test, the Joe Root-led side made a great comeback in the third test and leveled the series 1-1. The hosts recorded a win by an innings and 76 runs at Headingley, Leeds. And now, the English team will be high on confidence and will look to take the lead in the fourth test. The inclusion of David Malan has strengthened their batting and the opening duo of Burns Hameed has also been back in form. With Jos Buttler set to miss this game, Jonny Bairstow will be keeping wickets. And one of Ollie Pope and Daniel Lawrence should take his place in the Playing XI.
“I think his records speak for himself. I think he is a world-class player. We’ve seen him score runs and take wickets against us and we know what he is capable of in the Test arena. We’ll certainly be making sure that we’re prepared for the challenges that he poses coming into the Test match along with other combinations that they might throw at us.” Joe Root on R Ashwin ahead of the fourth test.
In the bowling department, Veteran James Anderson, who wreaked havoc with his opening spell in the third test is still going strong at the age of 39. Ollie Robinson, the player of the match will look to repeat the same performance again. And with the addition of Chris Woakes and Mark Wood (fit to play the fourth test), England’s bowling lineup is looking stronger.
India will look to bounce back at Oval
For India, batting has been the issue in this series, but still, Virat and team management will look to go with the same batting lineup and back them to give their best in the fourth test. A match-winning knock from the Big 3 – Chetweshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, and Ajinkya Rahane is long due. And no better time to score a century when your team needs a comeback in the series. Oval is known to be one of the best venues to bat in England. After a lot of debate on R Ashwin’s inclusion throughout the series, finally, we could see him in the Playing XI.
It’ll be interesting to see India go with the 4-1 combination or play 2 spinners at Oval. The workload management is also another thing which team management will look after, so one of Ishant Sharma or Mohammad Shami could be rested in this test. Umesh Yadav or Shardul Thakur should be added to the Playing XI. Rishabh Pant will look to shake off his poor outings and deliver in the important game at Oval. There is also a possibility that Rahane could make way for Vihari at the No. 5 spot.
Team News
England has called up Chris Woakes for the fourth Test, with Sam Billings also added to the squad as cover. Jos Buttler will miss the fourth Test due to personal reasons. The England head coach Chris Silverwood confirmed that Jonny Bairstow will keep wickets. Mark Wood is fit and available for selection for the fourth test.
Records that might be broken in the fourth test
1. Virat Kohli needs 329 more to register 8,000 runs in Tests and become the sixth Indian to do so.
2. Jasprit Bumrah has taken 97 wickets in Test Cricket. He needs 3 more to become the twenty-third Indian player to reach the 100 wickets milestone.
3. R Ashwin needs just four more wickets to surpass Harbhajan Singh (417) and become the third-highest wicket-taker for India.
4. Ishant Sharma needs one more wicket to surpass Zaheer Khan (311). As of now, he has claimed 311 scalps at 32.22
5. Virat Kohli needs 149 more to breach the 1,000-run mark against England in England.
6. Mohammad Shami has taken 195 wickets. He needs 5 more to become the eleventh Indian player to reach the 200 wickets milestone.
7. Virat Kohli needs 1 more run to complete 23,000 runs in International cricket.
Match details
Date: September 2-6, 2021 (Thursday-Monday).
Time: 11:00 AM (Local/ BST), 03:30 PM (IST), and 10:00 AM (GMT).
Venue: Kennington Oval, London.
Predicted XIs
England: Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (C), Jonny Bairstow(WK), Ollie Pope, Moeen Ali, Ollie Robinson, Chris Woakes/ Sam Curran, Craig Overton, Mark Wood/James Anderson.
India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin/Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami/Shardul Thakur, and Mohammed Siraj.
TV and live streaming details
TV: Sony Six (English), Sony Ten 3 (Hindi)
Live Streaming: SonyLiv
