Ind vs Eng 5th Test Day 1: England elect to bat first; Hanuma Vihari debuts

In the backdrop of Ravi Shastri's comment on current Indian cricket team terming it the "best travelling side in last 15-20 years", Kohli would like to play is best possible playing 11

England captain Joe Root won the toss and elected to bat against India in the fifth and final Test at the Oval in London. Hanuma Vihari became the 292nd Test player to represent India after he was handed his maiden cap. He will replace Hardik Pandya, while Ravindra Jadeja comes in place of R Ashwin in the playing 11. England have already won the Test series, taking a 3-1 lead after winning the fourth Test at Southampton.

Here is the playing 11 of both the teams:

India playing 11: Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah

England playing 11: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Moeen Ali, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

Ravindra Jadeja to replace R Ashwin­?

Ravindra Jadeja looks set to play his first Test on tour, with Ravichandran Ashwin not bowling in the nets on Wednesday and moving gingerly as well. While there is no confirmation from the management, it has been reliably learnt that he has aggravated his hip strain and will miss out on the final Test.

India Team news

Jasprit Bumrah could also be rested keeping in view the Asia Cup beginning next week in the UAE. The pacer, along with Shardul Thakur, is part of India's limited-overs' squad and as such Umesh Yadav could make a comeback into the side.

India will be looking to play with their lower-middle order and bowling combinations. With Hardik Pandya failing to impress with the bat, the management could trial Hanuma Vihari in the middle, as he is also a handy spinner.

Team India Test record in last 15 years under various captains

A statistical lowdown will show that India under Sourav Ganguly's leadership drawn Test series in England (2002) and Australia (2003-04) apart from winning a Test in West Indies (a team that had Brian Lara, Carl Hooper, Shivanarine Chanderpaul) and a series in Pakistan. Under Rahul Dravid, India won twin series in West Indies (2006) and England (2007) apart from winning a Test in South Africa. Under Anil Kumble, India won a Test match on a bouncy Perth for the first time while under Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian team won a series in New Zealand and also for the only time drew a series in South Africa. Having lost back to back overseas series in South Africa and England, the myth of being good travellers has been busted and they have not been able to convince that they are good enough to win a series outside sub-continent. Kohli-led side though has retained its number one Test ranking despite series' losses in both overseas tours in 2018 thus far. (more)

Why India is not getting the results it wants despite Kohli's heroics

Virat Kohli can reasonably claim that the scoreboard does not tell the whole story but it remains a difficult case to make that India should have won any of the Tests it lost

India suffered a 60-run defeat against England in the fourth test in Southampton on Sunday to go down 1-3 in the five-match series. In this article, the author compares the series defeat with the one in South Africa recently to figure out what hampers the Indian test team's performance abroad.

Ravi Shastri was seething. In the aftermath of the ODI and T20 series wins in South Africa earlier this year, he gave a much-discussed interview to Mid Day where the coach went to the extent of claiming that people in India are happy to see the Men in Blue lose. The regret over losing the Test series 1-2 was palpable. According to Shastri’s “calculation”, India had lost because it won two sessions less than the Proteas.

But others chose to place their scrutiny on the preparations for the tour, which had India going into the first Test without any warm-up games. This changed when India arrived in England. The majority of the squad spent a month before the Tests, as the limited-overs games were scheduled ahead. It raised hope that India would do better this time.

It also helped that England was in a shaky moment. An uncertain batting order brought confusion and collapses while the selection of leggie Adil Rashid was a contentious call, particularly so because his record in red-ball cricket was little to speak about.

And still, the results in England were not much different from South Africa. The failure to chase down reasonable targets in the first and fourth Tests was reminiscent of the failed fourth-innings efforts in Cape Town and Centurion. India’s bowlers, so often the subject of the lamenting Indian cricket fan, broke through the dark clouds of doubt to ensure that 20 wickets would be picked in every Test.

But the batting, which was India’s bulwark in testing conditions historically, fell away. This was the case even as the skipper Virat Kohli broke new boundaries. With a Test still to be played, Kohli has already become the first Indian skipper to exceed the 500-run barrier in a series abroad. Except the rout at Lord’s, he delivered significant contributions in each innings with two hundreds and three half-centuries. (more)