England have made one change to their XI for the fifth Test against India in Dharamshala, starting tomorrow (March 7).
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England have announced their XI for the Dharamshala Test, making just one change from the one that featured in Ranchi. Mark Wood has replaced Ollie Robinson.
Wood featured in the first and the third Tests of the series in Hyderabad and Rajkot respectively. While in the first game he went wicketless, the express quick picked four wickets across the two innings in Rajkot, albeit going for 160 runs in the process.
Robinson, who he will replace for the fifth Test, made a comeback to the Test XI in Ranchi, but didn’t inspire much confidence with his gentle seamers.
In the only innings he bowled, Robinson finished with figures of 0-54, going at 4.15 runs per over, and came under severe criticism from the English cricket community.
JUST IN: Mark Wood will replace Ollie Robinson in England's XI for the fifth Test in Dharamshala.
England's XI: Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Foakes, Hartley, Wood, Anderson, Bashir#INDvENG pic.twitter.com/WF90ZAk1hX
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) March 6, 2024
James Anderson has kept his place for a fourth straight Test in the series after missing out in the first. The 41-year-old has picked just eight wickets from six innings at 34.4 apiece so far in the series. The fourth Test was particularly hard for Anderson, as he finished the game with figures of 1-139 across the two innings. However, England have kept their faith on him for the final match of the series.
The batting order bears a settled look as despite the inconsistent returns of the batters, particularly those in the middle order, England have stuck by them. Focus will be on Jonny Bairstow, as he prepares to turn up for his 100th Test match.
England XI for Dharamshala Test
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson.