India vs England 5th Test: Hosts opt to bowl as Men in Blue prefer Shardul Thakur over Ashwin

Shubman Gill is the only specialist opener while Shardul Thakur as seamer all-rounder has been preferred over veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
England skipper Ben Stokes tosses the coin as India's Jasprit Bumrah watches. (Photo| Twitter)
England skipper Ben Stokes tosses the coin as India's Jasprit Bumrah watches. (Photo| Twitter)

BIRMINGHAM: England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl against India in the rescheduled fifth Test, starting here on Friday. With skipper Rohit Sharma ruled out after testing positive for COVID-19, Jasprit Bumrah will be India's 36th Test captain.

Shubman Gill is the only specialist opener while Shardul Thakur as seamer all-rounder has been preferred over veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Teams

India: Jasprit Bumrah (captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

England: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (captain), Sam Billings, Matthew Potts, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, James Anderson.

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