England Cricket Board (ECB) announced the Test squad for the rescheduled Test against India at Edgbaston Birmingham starting July 1. ECB did not tinker with the winning combination and retained the 15-man squad which was announced for the recently concluded third Test against New Zealand.
England are riding high on the confidence of the series whitewash they inflicted on Kane Williamson-led New Zealand. Taking the attacking approach under the new partnership of head coach Brendon McCullum and skipper Stokes, England won all three Tests while chasing a target over 250.
Wicketkeeper-batter Ben Foakes has been retained in the English squad despite testing positive for Covid-19 which ruled him out of the third Test against New Zealand. Foakes is likely to recover before the Test. If Foakes does not recover in time, Sam Billings is likely to keep wickets.
Recently, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma tested positive for the virus too and is currently in isolation. Rohit’s participation is still under doubt and Mayank Agarwal has been called in as cover for the opener.
Both the teams will have different captains when they take the field in Edgbaston. Virat Kohli was leading India whereas Joe Root was leading the hosts. Currently, India are leading the five-Test series by 2-1. India will have a chance to win their third Test series on English soil.
England Test squad
Ben Stokes (c), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Craig Overton, Jamie Overton, Matthew Potts, Ollie Pope, Joe Root
India Test squad
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Srikar Bharat (wk).
