India Vs England, 4th Test: England won the toss and opted to bat first
After a couple of morale-crushing defeats in the first two Tests (31 runs at Edgbaston) and (innings defeat at the Lord's), Virat Kohli registered a memorable victory in the third Test in Nottingham by 203 runs which helped them to bounce back in the five-match Test series.
England won the toss and opted to bat first. There is a big opportunity for Moeen Ali to prove the form he's had the last couple of weeks.
Nottingham victory gave India hopes of coming from 0-2 down to win a five-match series, something achieved just once in the history of Test cricket, by a Don Bradman-inspired Australia against England in Ashes 1936/37. So for the Indian team to emulate such a feat the first step would be to opt for their best playing XI.
Interestingly, this is only the third Test at Southampton. England had previously played Sri Lanka (2011) and India (2014). England had won their last encounter against India in Southampton by 266 runs.
We have an unchanged team for the 4th Test.#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/xTMpEmtiGX
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 30, 2018
ICYMI: "If Nottingham was hard work this is going to be even harder"@imVkohli's thoughts ahead of the fourth #ENGvIND Test. ⬇️https://t.co/WSBd4acPtj pic.twitter.com/Fe98RdAiz2
— ICC (@ICC) August 30, 2018
Moeen Ali took his first Test five-for with 6/67 to help England beat India by 266 runs in their last Test encounter in Southampton - he returns to the side today!#ENGvIND #ThrowbackThursday pic.twitter.com/V2VEmTr3Bw
— ICC (@ICC) August 30, 2018
Indian Squad:
Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant (wk), Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
England Squad:
Joe Root (c), Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Oliver Pope, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Sam Curran, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes, Ben Stokes, James Vince.
First published: 30 August 2018, 15:03 IST