Alastair Cook will be playing his last Test as England is all set to host India for the fifth and final Test starting on Friday, September 7, 2018, at the Kennington Oval in London. England has already claimed the five-match series 3-1 after winning the previous match by 60 runs in Southampton last week.
Live updates:
England score day 1 - 191/7
England wins toss
England will be presented with the Pataudi Trophy at the end of the fifth Test.
England will keen to win the series 4-1, as it would be a fitting farewell for the legendary batsman and former skipper, Alastair Cook.
The visitors, on the other hand, will hope to end this tour on a high and make the series scoreline 3-2.
Sony Six and Sky Sports to live stream the match
- India & Subcontinent: Sony Six, Sony Six HD, SONY TEN
- UK: Sky Sports Cricket
- Australia: Fox Sports
- South Africa: SuperSport
- Canada: ATN Cricket Plus (Asian Television Network)
- USA: Willow TV
- Malaysia: Astro Cricket HD
- Singapore: Star Cricket
- Bangladesh: Gazi TV (GTV)
England unchanged as Bairstow returns as the keeper
Captain Joe Root announced an unchanged XI for the Oval test after his side outshined India for the third time in the series last week.
According to a Cricbuzz report, Root said that Johnny Bairstow who didn't keep in the last test will play as the wicketkeeper-batsman while Jos Butler will play as a specialist batsman.
Cook announced his retirement from international a few days back and would be making his 161st and final Test appearance for England. He is England's highest run-getter in Tests, having scored over 12,000 runs.
A few changes on the cards for India
India would be looking at this dead rubber as an opportunity to end the series at a much respectable position.
As per reported by Cricbuzz, the visitors led by Virat Kohli might make a couple of changes for the final test. KL Rahul, who has had tough series with the bat was speculated sit out in favor of teenager Prithvi Shaw.
There are also reports of Ravindra Jadeja replacing Ravichandran Ashwin, while Hanuma Vihari might come in for Hardik Pandya. Rishabh Pant can also make way for Dinesh Karthik. The final XI will be announced after the toss. The pitch at the Oval seemed to be dry, as reported by ESPNCricinfo.
The captain winning the toss should bat first, as the spinners will come handy later in the game. The weather forecast for the first day's play is fairly bright, but there are overcast days in store for the later part of the Test.