Ranchi: India will aim to seal the deal as they take on England in the fourth and penultimate Test of the series.
As the hosts are already 2-1 up, they can clinch the series with a win in the upcoming game.
England’s approach will be to watch out for after two thumping defeats.
While KL Rahul continues to be unavailable, Jasprit Bumrah, the leading wicket-taker of the ongoing series, has been rested for the Ranchi game.
Either uncapped Akash Deep or Mukesh Kumar would replace the latter in the Indian XI.
Meanwhile, England have been majorly dented by the poor form of Joe Root.
Their inexperienced spin attack has also struggled in the last two games.
Meanwhile, the Ranchi pitch has got the England camp thinking. Captain Ben Stokes and vice-captain Ollie Pope both shared similar views about the 22 yards for the India vs England fourth Test.
It is set to turn but how quickly and how much are the big questions in the visitors’ minds. The pitches in this series have been anything but rank turners. Hyderabad offered the most to the spinners but it was by no means unplayable.
India won the second Test by 106 runs and then registered their biggest-ever Test win (in terms of runs) when they pummeled England by 434 runs in the third Test in Rajkot to take a 2-1 lead.
Stokes described the Ranchi pitch for the fourth Test as something he has never seen. So he doesn’t know how it will play. The pitch looked greenish from a distance but when you go close, it has cracks in it, he said.
“It looked interesting, didn’t it? I don’t know. I can’t say much. I don’t know, I’ve never seen something like that before so I have got no idea,” Stokes said, when asked how it might play.