Prestige at stake

With England taking an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match Test series, the final match at the Oval is only of academic importance but Virat Kohli will want to finish on a definite high. A scoreline of 2-3 will definitely look much better than 1-4 and India will any day take a Test win. Having lost back to back overseas series in South Africa and England, the myth of being good travellers has been busted and it has not been able to convince that it is 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. In this backdrop, Kohli’s India will be playing a Test match where team combination will again come under focus. While it would want to play the best possible eleven, there is also a case for experimentation with the line-up. 

With Prithvi Shaw’s inclusion in the Test squad, the Indian selectors are looking ahead to the next line of openers. And with Murali Vijay dropped, they need to firm up plans ahead as attention will soon turn to the tour of Australia in December. A school of thought suggests that Shaw should be thrown into the deep end of the pool to ascertain if he can take on the pressure of facing the best bowlers international cricket has on offer. 

Even if he fails to get going in this one-off Test, at age 18, Shaw still has time to climb the ladder again. Meanwhile, any success on his part will provide an easy answer to the opening conundrum ahead of the Australian tour. The other school of thought suggests that the current opening combination of Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul ought to be retained. 

If the selectors are indeed looking ahead, this could prove to be a last chance for either of them to impress before the series against West Indies and the domestic first-class season that begins back at home. Early indicators are that Shaw will have to wait for his chance, at least until the home season. Elsewhere though, India will be looking to play with its 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.

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. 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.

For England, this Test will be marked more by emotion than anything else. One of its greatest ever, Alastair Cook, takes his final bow and leaves the host potentially searching for two openers for its tour of Sri Lanka later in the year. Given that an unchanged squad for this fifth Test was announced after Cook went public with his decision to retire, the selectors retained faith in Keaton Jennings who seemed to have turned a confident corner in the second innings at Southampton.