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The change of venue brought no luck to Shubman Gill, as the India captain lost the toss for the fifth time in the series. England’s stand-in captain, Ollie Pope, opted to bowl first under the gloomy London skies at The Oval. India made four changes to their playing XI for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series finale, aiming to level the contest 2-2.
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This marked the 15th consecutive toss India lost in men’s international cricket, with their last win coming in January this year during a home T20I. It was also just the 14th instance in Test history where a team lost the toss in all five matches of a series—the only previous example in the 21st century being India’s 2018 tour of England.
Whether due to frustration over his own luck or the string of toss losses, Gill appeared confused when presenter and former India head coach Ravi Shastri asked about India’s changes for the Oval Test. “We’ve got three changes,” he said. “Dhruv Jurel, Karun Nair, and Prasidh Krishna in for Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur, and Jasprit Bumrah.”
However, the teamsheet revealed there was a fourth change. The 25-year-old forgot to mention that Akash Deep, who was rested for the fourth game after picking up a groin niggle in the Lord’s Test earlier this month, was back in the XI in place of Anshul Kamboj, who had an underwhelming debut in Manchester.
The Oval Test will be Jurel’s first appearance in the format since featuring in the Perth opener against Australia last November in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, preceded by the home series against England in February 2024. He came in for Pant, who was ruled out of the finale with a fractured toe.
Bumrah has been rested, having met the criteria of just three appearances on the tour, which was decided at the start of the series in consultation with the BCCI medical team, in order to manage his workload. Although Gill had hinted that Arshdeep Singh could likely make his debut in London, India opted for experience in the final game and handed Praisdh Krishna another opportunity.
‘Karun Nair gets a fresh lease of life’
After being dropped from the playing XI for the fourth Test at Old Trafford, Nair returned to the XI as he replaced Shardul Thakur. India opted for more batting depth instead of having an extra bowler in Kuldeep Yadav. Returning to the Indian Test team after eight years, Nair scored only 133 runs in the first three matches, without a single fifty-plus score.
Speaking on JioStar, former India batting coach Sanjay Bangar reckoned Nair has been given a third opportunity in his career.
“When you have two all-rounders who had a fabulous game in the previous match, and here you’re playing with a combination wherein you only have five winning options, then I think there is very little room to consider bringing in somebody like Kuldeep Yadav. So you can very well understand that. And having that batting depth, Karun Nair is getting a fresh lease of life. I might say that cricket is now giving him the third opportunity. We just sincerely hope that he makes the most of it,” he said.
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel(w), Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj
England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope(c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton, Josh Tongue
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