India tour of England, 2022

ENG vs IND, 5th Test 

Preview

England and India will face each other in the fifth and final test match of the series at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Four of the five games were played last year itself, and the remaining one is rescheduled to begin from July 1. The first match of the series ended in a draw. After that the men in blue won the second game by a significant margin of 151 runs and went 1-0 up in the series. The hosts bounced back in the third game to level the series.  After facing a heavy defeat in the third game, the visitors put on a commanding show to maintain their lead in the series (2-1). 

India will face a rejuvenated English side who recently registered 3-0 whitewash against the Kiwis. England have looked a dominant force under Brendon McCulum and Ben Stokes. The fact that they demolished a competitive New Zealand speaks volumes of their paramountcy. In the batting department they have the likes of Joe Root, Ollie Pope and Johnny Bairstow. Their former skipper Joe Root is in some form at the moment. He is scoring tons for fun and has hardly looked uncomfortable while batting lately. Johnny Bairstow is another batter to watch out for. The wicket keeper batter is playing like a kid with freedom, smashing bowlers to all parts of the ground. James Anderson will shoulder the bowling prowess alongside Stuart Broad. 

The visitors will be a little concerned about the availability of Rohit Sharma. The flamboyant batsman was tested COVID positive this past week and hasn’t been with the team in the practice sessions ever since. Indian coach Rahul Dravid hasn’t yet confirmed Sharma’s availability for the game, and it will be interesting to see how the men in blue function  without the services of their regular skipper. In the batting front India have Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Shubham Gill as their top three. They will need to step up and lead the batting charge for their side. The pace trio of Mohammad Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah and Jasprit Bumrah should look to make the most of the conditions and pick wickets. Ahead of this riveting clash, let us have a look at how these two sides will fare out in the final game.     

Match Details

Match: ENG vs IND, 5th Test (Rescheduled match), India tour of England

Date: Friday, July 01, 2022 - Tuesday, July 05, 2022

Time: 3:00 PM

Venue: Edgbaston, Birmingham 

Pitch Report

The difficult task for the team batting first will be to cross the 300 run mark. Then, the skipper winning the toss could elect to bat second, not only because the seamers will get a lot of allowance on Day 1, but also because chasing teams have done little more promising than teams batting first at the Edgbaston thus far. 

ENG vs IND Squads

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

IND: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Srikar Bharat, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna

ENG vs IND Probable Playing XIs

ENG: Zak Crawley, Alex Lees, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Ben Foakes / Sam Billings (wk), Jamie Overton/Jack Leach, Stuart Broad /Jack Leach, Matthew Potts, James Anderson.

IND: Rohit Sharma/KS Bharat, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj.

Match Prediction 

Expect a cracking affair. Both India and England are quality sides, and hence it is difficult to pick a winner right now. But if we were to pick a winner then we’ll go with England, considering their current form in red ball cricket. 

Suggested Playing XI Real11 Fantasy Cricket

Team 1

Team 2