- Monday, February 24, 2025
Wood has played two matches in the series so far and picked only four wickets at an average of 55 plus.
By: Shubham Ghosh
ENGLAND, who will play for pride in the fifth Test match against India in Dharamsala starting Thursday (7) after having losing the series 1-3, have announced their playing XI and pace bowler Mark Wood was set to return to replace Ollie Robinson, also a seamer.
Wood, who has played two matches in the five-match series so far against Robinson’s one, has taken only four wickets at an average of more than 55. All his four wickets came in the first innings of the third match in Rajkot while he went wicketless in the first match in Hyderabad that the visitors had won by 28 runs.
James Anderson, who needs two wickets to complete 700 scalps in Tests as the first pacer, was the other quick bowler in the team. The Three Lions chose to play two spinners in Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir, both of whom have been impressive in their debut series. While Hartley has picked 20 wickets in four Tests so far, Bashir has 12 from two.
Despite being a dead rubber, the fifth match is important for both teams as both sides have points to gain in the ongoing World Test Championship. Particularly for England, stakes are still high as they are lagging at No.8 in the points table. Winning the match will give either of the teams 12 crucial points while a draw will see both sides getting four points each.
For India, wicket-keeper-batter KL Rahul has been ruled out of the final match due to injury while pacer Jasprit Bumrah was set to return after being rested for the fourth match.
England playing XI for Dharamsala Test against India: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (captain), Ben Foakes (wicket-keeper), Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, James Anderson, Shoaib Bashir.
India’s updated squad for the fifth Test: Rohit Sharma (captain), Jasprit Bumrah (vice captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wicket-keeper), KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Devdutt Padikkal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj.
