Jos Buttler and Jack Leach will return to the England squad for the fifth and the last test against India at the Old Trafford cricket stadium in Manchester which will start this Friday.
Wicket-keeper batsmen Jos Buttler missed the last test where England fell to a 157-run defeat at the Oval to be present for the birth of his second child. Left-arm spinner Leach has been part of England’s squad for the first two Tests but wasn’t given a place in the starting eleven. He has not played a test match for England since March of this year when they coincidentally played the Indian Cricket Team in India. They lost that Test Series 3-1 to the hosts who went to the World Test Championship finals due to this series win.
India has not won a Test series in England since 2007 when the Rahul Dravid led side beat the hosts 1-0 in a three-match test series. They are now leading this series 2-1 and hope that they get could get their much-awaited series win in England. In Buttler’s absence, Jonny Bairstow kept the wickets at the Oval and dropped one place down the order to number six and Ollie Pope who returned to the side settled at number five. The latter scored an 81 in the first innings of the fourth test.
Leach provides a second spin option for the team alongside Moon Ali whose form hasn’t been great since being recalled and has been averaging 48 with the ball and 17 with the bat and can be considered pretty bad.
England squad: Joe Root (capt), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.