England elects to bowl as India includes Umesh and Shardul in playing XI, no place for Ashwin

England skipper Joe Root won the toss and elected to bowl against India in the fourth Test at the Oval in London on September 2 as world’s No 1 off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was ignored for the fourth time in a row.

England made two changes, bringing in Ollie Pope in place of Jos Buttler, while fit-again Chris Woakes replaced Sam Curran.

Buttler missed out to be with his wife, who is due to give birth to their second child.

India also made two changes with Umesh Yadav replacing Ishant Sharma and Shardul Thakur coming in place of Mohammed Shami. Both Sharma and Shami are suffering from niggles.

Kohli reasoned that left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja is as good an option against four left-handers in the English line-up using the rough created by the fast bowlers.

The five-match series is currently tied 1-1 after England won the third Test by an innings and 76 runs at Leeds.

Teams

India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

England: Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan, Joe Root(c), Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow(w), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Craig Overton, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson.