England vs India 5th Test Match Details, Schedule, Summary
10.55am: Time for the national anthems. Ben Stokes looks on from the pavilion as his charges line up on the outfield… penny for his thoughts right now.
10.54am: England are milling around at the edge of the pitch. They are itching to get going in these conditions.
Saleh Data: “Finally, Woakes is getting the conditions he thrives in. He’s been brilliant in this series without much luck so far, this is the break he needed.” Brilliant might be overstating it, but unlucky is certainly true… whisper it, but this could be a farewell outing for one of England’s stalwarts of recent years. Unless, of course, he makes things happen here.
10.49am: Looks like we’re on for that prompt start despite everything.
Tom de Sailor: “Strange selection from India. The team is selected just to make sure they get runs. But, they can’t win without taking 20 wickets – this attack will struggle to take 20 wickets. Another “hard fought” draw or a loss looming. “
kirky: “if you think 32,708 are big numbers, did you know that if you folded a piece of paper in half 42 times it would reach the moon?True story.” I’ve heard that one too. I think physics might get in the way first…
10.42am: The covers are coming back on … more light rain falling… watch this space. It’s just the main tarpaulin on the square for now… and it’s coming off already.
PV: “Gawd!, I was shocked when Gill did not mention Akash Deep was not playing.. thank goodness it was only a slip of the mind!”
Sushrut Dhakal: “@Andrew 32768-1 to be exact”… thank you. It’s a stupidly vast number, and it’ll get exponentially bigger with each new loss! That much I do know…
Rajan: “what wrong did kuldeep do? poor fellow is getting wrong treatment ” To be fair, these were not the conditions to pick a wristspinner… his chances probably should have come at the start of the series.
marcus: “Is Gill short for Guildenstern. if s, only 77 more coin tosses to go.To quote Stoppard, there is an art to the building up of suspense. “
10.33am: It’s toss time!
Pope wins the toss, India lose for the 15th time in a row! A look of something between disgust, resignation and incredulity on Gill’s face… a 32,000-1 upshot, and England will bowl first!
Pope: “A bit more grass, overhead conditions, a bit of a no-brainer. Lost a few men, the captain down, but Woakes is tracking nicely, and some fresh faces and a long batting order. We won’t be content with 2-2. We want to make it 3-1.”
Shubman Gill: “As long as we win the match I don’t mind losing the toss. Our bowlers are very much ready, a good wicket, everyone will chip in.”
Three actually four changes… Jurel in for Pant, Nair in for Shardul, Krishna in for Bumrah, Akash in for Kamboj, whom Gill forgot to mention.
“It’s about that 5-10% extra push. The boys are all ready for the Test match.”
England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jacob Bethell, 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Jamie Overton, 11 Josh Tongue
India: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 KL Rahul, 3 B Sai Sudharsan, 4 Shubman Gill (capt), 5 Karun Nair, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Dhruv Jurel (wk), 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Akash Deep, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Mohammed Siraj
10.29am The cover is coming off already. We might be set for a reasonably prompt toss…
Cartoft: “Intuitively you would think that after losing 14 tosses, the odds were stacked in favour of Gill winning today. But statistically, the odds are still 50/50!” Yes, I distinctly remember trying to be taught that as a 10-year-old, and it utterly boiled my brain.
10.23am No word on the toss just yet. The big sheet has just been dragged over the main square, so there’s the potential for a slight delay.
10.18am It’s grey but dry at The Oval for now. There’s a tiny bit of rain in the air, but it’s gloomy rather than damp right now. Even so, the covers are coming on for the moment. I think it’ll pass fairly quickly.
“Brilliant bowling conditions,” says Stuart Broad on Sky. “Eight millimetres of live grass, the clouds are in, lights will be on… definite win toss and bowl.”
10.08am Paul Muchmore has his eyes on India’s team huddle, and reckons Prasidh Krishna has got the go-ahead, ahead of Arshdeep Singh. All will be revealed soon enough… 20 minutes until the toss.
Al Muthu is manning the Live Report today. He’s getting things up and running over there…
VISHAL: “Shardul Thakur has to play this Test Match — especially after what he did at The Oval in 2021.Fifties in both innings, 3 wickets, and the all-important breakthrough to end a 100-run opening stand in the fourth innings.He was a game-changer then — and he can be one again now.” Yes, India won their last Test against England on this ground in 2021, which is auspicious for them.
kaig: “law of averages suggests Gill should win this toss! Also Stokes not there to toss the coin!!!” Law of averages has been saying that for about 13 consecutive spins… but it’s 14 losses and counting for India’s captain. Surely this time it changes?
10.03am It’s been two years to the day since Stuart Broad bowed out on this very ground, with a bail-switching trick and a series-squaring victory against Australia. And now, writes Vithushan Ehantharajah, comes the acid test for England’s new generation of quicks. It’s all change for the seam attack after a gruelling four Tests, so can Josh Tongue, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson and Chris Woakes seal the deal?
10am Our team have assembled at The Oval with an eye to the skies. Here’s Paul Muchmore: “Rain has cleared, the practice nets are up and warm-ups are underway. Lee Fortis keeping a close eye on everyone near the pitch…” Yes indeed… the head groundsman is not just a groundsman in these parts!
maddy: “Green pitch, cloudy conditions and frequent rain expected. Looks like unlucky Kuldeep will miss out again. ” Yes, it does appear that way. The stats about spinners at The Oval are not encouraging on that front. Just 79 wickets to spin, compared to 617 to seam, in the past 22 first-class games here.
9.50am Right, let’s start the build-up proper. We’re about 40 mins away from the toss, which – remember – will be conducted on England’s behalf by Ollie Pope, after yesterday’s seismic news that Ben Stokes is out of contention with a torn shoulder.
8.50am Good morning all, welcome to the series finale: England versus India at The Oval. A 2-1 scoreline in play, and everything on the line once more as two tired and grumpy teams prepare to collide out in the middle for one last time. It’s still more than two hours until the scheduled 11am start, but here’s an early glance at the weather, given we’ve already had some very heavy rain pass through Kennington this morning. The good news is the worst has already gone; the bad news is there may be a bit more to come this afternoon.