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The Ben Stokes-led Three Lions currently trail 1-2 in the five-match Test series against India. While they won the opening Test by 28 runs in Hyderabad, they succumbed to 106-run loss and 434-run defeat in Vizag and Rajkot, respectively. But as the Test series move to Ranchi for the fourth Test, England is likely to make some changes in their playing XI.
England is looking to call in pacer Ollie Robinson in place of Mark Wood in the XI. The main reason behind calling Robinson in the XI is to add balance with uncertainty over Ben Stokes returning to bowling. The pair of Wood and Anderson bowled 76 overs between them in the Rajkot.
It is to be noted that Robinson’s previous Test appearance came against Australia in Headingley in July. The 30-year-old English pacer has 76 wickets at 22.21 in 19 caps.
Not a belting wicket at the moment: Ollie Pope
Speaking ahead of the fourth Test, England vice-captain Ollie Pope also spoke of their playing XI. However, he said that the final decision will be taken after Team India sees the wicket, he said at the moment “There’s a lot of cracks.”
“It’s very platey, and they’ve just wetted it as well, which generally dries. It doesn’t necessarily look like a belting wicket at the moment. It kind of looks like one half is good, and then there are a lot of platey cracks. That’s how we see it at the minute. I think we will see what happens tomorrow after the Indian team has looked at the wicket, then make a decision from there,” Ollie Pope said.
England’s squad for fourth Test vs IND:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes (wk), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, James Anderson, Shoaib Bashir, Ollie Robinson, Dan Lawrence, Gus Atkinson.
