Ahmedabad: The fourth and final match of the cricket-Test series between India and England starts today.
The match will be played at the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Mottara, Ahmedabad from 9.30 am. The match will be streamed live on Star Sports 1,3 channels and online on Hotstar. India are 2-1 up in the series. England will be playing with a heartbeat as it will be the same venue as the third Test. India won by 10 wickets on the second day of the third Test. India are aiming to reach the final of the World Test Championship.
India will win the Test series and qualify for the World Test Championship if they win or draw the match. New Zealand is the team that reached the final. If India lose to England and draw the series, Australia will play in the final. Despite losing the fourth Test, India had a small chance. Withdrawal from the Test series against South Africa was a setback for Australia.
The South African Cricket Board (ICBB) has lodged a complaint with the International Cricket Council (ICC) seeking to reduce their Test championship points and pay them compensation following Australia’s withdrawal. ICC If South Africa’s complaint is accepted, the final between India and New Zealand will be played.
Same pitch
The final match was played on the same pitch as the third Test. In addition to the pitch that supports the spin “badly”, the hot weather can be bad. The temperature will be 30 degrees Celsius for five days.
England will not repeat the foolishness of playing only one specialist spinner in the third Test. Left-arm spinner Jack Leach will be joined by off-spinner Dom Bess. Captain Joe Root will also be seen as a part-time spinner. Root had a record of five wickets in the third Test. He returned five runs in 6.2 overs, conceding just eight runs, including three maidens.
Australia’s Tim May holds the world record for the lowest number of runs conceded in a Test by five wickets. In the 1992-93 Adelaide Test against the West Indies, May was dismissed for five in nine overs. Base will replace pacer Stuart Broad. England also plan to field paired pacer Joffre Archer on the Indian pitches and replace him with Oli Stone or Mark Wood. One change is that Umesh Yadav will replace pacer Jaspreet Bumra in the Indian team. Boomera was ruled out of the fourth Test for personal reasons. Off-spinner r. Ashwin and left-arm spinner Akshar Patel will be the openers. With four more dismissals, Umesh Yadav will become the fifth Indian pacer to take 100 wickets in Tests. Captain Virat Kohli has been left reeling from the prospect of not giving up the series at home after 2012 against England.
Team: India – Rohit Sharma, Shubhman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant, R.S. Ashwin, Washington Sunder, Akshar Patel, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav.
Team: England: Zack Crowley, Dom Sibley, Johnny Bairstow, Joe Root (captain), Ben Stokes, Oli Pope, Ben Fox, Dom Bess, Joffre Archer, Jack Leach, James Anderson.