by England and India go to the Oval on Thursday for the decisive fifth and last test of a highly competitive campaign. Both teams fight against mental and physical fatigue.
An overloaded schedule of five tests in less than seven weeks has proven to be exhausting, especially for the fast bowl of both teams, with each game back so far.
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Remarkably, India can still end the series 2-2 after the fourth test in Old Trafford has achieved an unlikely draw and the hosts hold onto the field for 143 overs in their second inning.
The tensions increased at the end of the game when India Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar complete their centuries after the English captain Ben Stokes offered his hand to shake a tie and added spices to the oval test.
AFP Sport deals with the most important topics of conversation before the fifth test in London.
India weighs Bumrah’s decision
Jasprit Bumrah’s back injury at the beginning of this year prompted India to announce that the fast bowler would only appear in three games during the current series.
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The world’s high-ranking test bowler appeared in a compatible place in Manchester and has little time to recover after he had scored an exhausting 33 over bowling in which he took two gates.
But India coach Gautam Gambhir says that all the quicks of his squad are suitable for the final, including Akash Deep, who took 10 gates in Bumrah’s absence during the 336-run victory of India in the second test in Edgbaston before suffering a groin injury in the next game at Lord.
England has to decide whether he should express the Paceman Jofra Archer, who weakened almost 90 overs in two tests after more than four years of an injury -related exile.
The home team took only four gates on a flat Old Trafford pitch during the fighting second inner inner rings of India, with Seamer Brydon also working hard.
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Jamie Overton has been added to an English squad that already has additional speed options in Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson.
England may have to initiate stokes
Can England prevent the Skipper Ben Stokes from turning into the ground in the oval in the oval?
The Old Trafford-Match was a personal triumph for the all-rounder, which was only the fourth English cricket player, who scored a hundred goals and took five gates in the same exam.
Stokes has now sent 140 over the most that he drilled in every series-and is the leading Wicket truck on both sides with 17 scalp.
But in Manchester he had obvious pain, often held his thigh and headed for a biceps injury.
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Since the skipper in the hope of England for her upcoming Australia tour regains the ashes, there are concerns about his workload.
“Bowling to be on the field is a difficult work, so I’m pretty sore,” said Stokes after the fourth test. “We are going 2-1, but we want to use this last big performance.”
Remarkable skiing see a different recording
Captain seems to do miracles for the career of the previously inconsistent Indian keyman Shubman Gill.
The elegant 25-year-old achieved his fourth century of an extraordinary debut series as a skipper at Old Trafford.
In her second inning, he came in 0-2 with the tourists in Dire Straits and reacted with a marathon 103 in 238 balls, which laid the basics for a great escape.
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Gill has set a new record for most of the runs that an India hit man achieved in a series against England from 722 and exceeded teammate Yashasvi Jaiswal in 2023/24 of 712.
At the Oval, he was able to put Sunil Gavascar’s record of the India series of 774 runs in a four-game campaign against the West Indian Islands in 1971.
One disadvantage for Gill is that he will be a foot fracture in Manchester without vice captain and productive Runscorer Rishabh Pant.
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