England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bat first against India in the fifth and final Test of their ongoing five-match series in Dharamsala on Thursday.
India have given a maiden Test cap to top-order batter Devdutt Padikkal and thus making his the fifth different player after Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel and Akash Deep to have made his debut for the hosts in the ongoing series.
India have made two changes to their playing XI that took the field in Ranchi. Jasprit Bumrah is back and replaces Akash Deep while Rajat Patidar injured himself during training on Wednesday and been replaced by Padikkal.
Also Read: India vs England 5th Test Day 1
India have an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series and are aiming to further increase their victory margin.
India’s Ravichandran Ashwin is set to feature in what is his 100th Test of a storied career. “Ash has been a real stalwart of Indian cricket. Such a proud moment for him, his nation and the family. We will be rooting for him to do the magic,” India captain Rohit Sharma said at the coin toss.
Incidentally, England wicketkeeper-batter Jonny Bairstow is also appearing in his 100th Test. “Jonny is one of our best ever all format players. 100 Test caps shows his commitment. Nice moment a few minutes ago when he got the cap,” England captain Stokes said.
The pitch has been predicted to favour the batters and Stokes had no hesitation to bat first.
Rohit said he would have batted first too.
“We would have batted first as well. There should be good bounce on this pitch than the games before in this series. Good pitch to bat on and I don’t think it will deteriorate that much,” he said.
Playing XIs
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravindra Jadeja, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Ben Stokes(c), Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes(w), Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, Mark Wood, James Anderson
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