Mark Wood Returns As England Announce Playing 11 For 5th Test Against India
Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum at Dharamsala (X.com)
England have called back Mark Wood for the final Test match against India in place of Ollie Robinson while James Anderson has retained his place in playing XI announced by England ahead of the 5th Test match. Ben Stokes and co. have been shuffling their pacers throughout the series and have continued the trend ahead of the final Test at Dharamsala.
The rest of the XI remains the same that lost in Ranchi with Jonny Bairstow all set to play his 100th Test match.
England are going with two pacers, contrary to speculation that they might play three seamers in Dharamsala with conditions expected to assist pacers. The two spinners will be Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir who have impressed in the series so far while there is still doubt over Ben Stokes availability as a bowler.
The batting unit is pretty settled, with Joe Root coming back to form in the last Test match with a hundred, while the openers have also played some sparkling knocks. The form of Jonny Bairstow and Ben Stokes has been a concern, though, and it remains to be seen how they go about their business in the final Test match of the series.
The Test is scheduled to start on 7th of March at the beautiful HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala and we can expect another cracking Test match.
England's Playing XI for 5th Test
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (C) Ben Foakes (WK), Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, James Anderson, Shoaib Bashir.
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