IND v ENG: Match Preview – India Tour Of England 2022, 5th Test

India face off against England in the rescheduled 5th Test at Edgbaston in Birmingham starting from July 1. The visitors were leading the side 2-1 in 2021before a covid scare in the Indian camp forced the postponement of the fifth Test to 2022. India will also play a white-ball series comprising of three T20Is and three ODIs after the Test match.

Both teams will be led by new captains heading into this Test match. Jasprit Bumrah will lead India after Rohit Sharma was ruled out from the 5th Test. Ben Stokes will lead England after taking over from Joe Root ahead of the New Zealand series.

Both the sides have named their squads for the all-important Test match. For India, skipper Rohit Sharma has contracted covid and ruled out of the Test match. The rest of the squad features Test regulars with Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli the key figures in the batting department. Ajinkya Rahane is not a part of this squad after he pulled up his hamstring in the IPL. The overall squad is pretty strong with all the three bases covered. 

England, on the other hand, are playing some ultra-aggressive cricket under the McCullum-Stokes reign. Meanwhile, Sam Billing who played the third Test against New Zealand in place of Ben Foakes has been retained in the 15-man squad against India. 

IND v ENG: Match Preview – India Tour Of England 2022, 5th Test

India 

India have been hit by injury and availability concerns ahead of the all-important Test match. Rohit Sharma is down with covid and eventually ruled out of the Test match after not recovering on time. Head coach Rahul Dravid pinned his hopes on Rohit’s recovery but that did not happen. 

The squad is already missing KL Rahul and if Rohit is ruled out, India will have to feature a totally new opening pair who has no experience playing in England conditions. Mayank Agarwal has been added to the squad. He will open the batting with Shubman Gill. 

The rest of the squad thankfully are fit and raring to go. India won a Test series in England under Dravid back in 2007. Bumrah and his boys have an opportunity to create history at Edgbaston. 

India Squad 

Jasprit Bumrah (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain) (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohd Shami, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Mayank Agarwal

England 

England are fresh from a Test series win against the Kiwis. They hammered them 3-0 in home conditions and in a style that is still very new to Test cricket. Coached by Brendon McCullum the side under Ben Stokes played some attacking Test cricket and went out with all guns blazing against the Kiwis. 

Several former cricket experts were amazed to see this approach. Many said that this is England’s calculative move to change their approach to Test cricket. If the series against New Zealand was anything to go by, India should brace themselves for a counter-attacking England side who would come hard at them and would do anything to win the Test match and draw the series. 

England Squad

 Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Sam Billings (wk), Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes (wk), Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Craig Overton, Jamie Overton, Matthew Potts, Ollie Pope, Joe Root

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