India Vs England 5th Test: England on a Roll, COVID-19 Rules Out Rohit!

It was the COVID-19 scare in the Indian camp that led to the postponement of the 5^thTest between India and England to be played in Manchester back in September, 2021; and it’s again COVID-19 that’s led to ruling out India captain Rohit Sharma of this Test which begins Friday, the 1^st of July 2022 at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Jasprit Bumrah, the existing Tests vice-captain is given the charge to lead India as the stand-in captain. The phenomenon of a ‘stand-in captain’ for Team India has become the rule rather than an exception in recent times, at times leading to double stand-ins. Anyway, the debutant captain Bumrah thus becomes only the second pacer, after Kapil Dev, to captain India in tests. In the absence of both the regular openers, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, the flown-in Mayank Agarwal is likely to join opener Shubman Gill.

 

There are significant changes that have taken place in the past 9 months. England has now a new captain Ben Stokes, one of the most successful all-rounders in world cricket. And under his aggressive and positive leadership England team is thriving at the moment, only recently clean sweeping a Test Series against New Zealand 3-0 with each match being high-scoring ones and English batsmen, namely former captain Joe Root and a blazing Jonny Bairstow, helping the team win even under extreme pressure to score runs like in the shorter formats. The newfound aggression is enhanced further by the new coach Brendon McCullum, incidentally an attacking batsman playing for New Zealand in the paste. On the other hand, the Indian batting stalwarts have hardly played in the recent months except for the IPL-2022; and most of them having come out of the ‘rested’ period. Why Rohit should get COVID-19 infection even after a full post-IPL rest is something nobody could have an answer about.  

 

But even otherwise, in Rohit India too had a new captain as against Virat Kohli who led India to take a lead of 2-1 in the five-match Test Series. Cheteshwar Pujara has made it back to the team thanks to scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket and is likely to be the No.3 mainstay for India while Ajinkya Rahane is left out. Apart from Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, all-rounder Hanuma Vihari could be considered in the playing eleven. Depending on the normally spin-friendly Edgbaston pitch there could four or threesome pace attack led by Bumrah and Shami, and one or two of the three other pacers, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Siraj, and accordingly both of the spinners, Ashwin and Jadeja, or one of them could be considered.

 

It’d be interesting to see how the Indian batting mainstay is going to face the English pace-battery of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes among others, and also how the in-form English batsmen would counter the Indian pace and spin attack in their home turf. The role of the all-rounders should be crucial for both teams when it matters. The match should be absorbing by all means. India cannot lose the Series and will put everything to win it while England will try all possible means to draw the Series.