For the fourth time in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, the coin came in favour of England. As Shubman Gill made the wrong call, Ben Stokes chose to field at Old Trafford in Manchester. England lead the five-match series 2-1 after three Tests.LIVE: India vs England 4th Test Day 1The hosts had won the first and third Tests, at Lord’s and Headingley, respectively. India, meanwhile, had triumphed at Edgbaston.
In team news, Sai Sudharsan has replaced Karun Nair who had struggled to make a mark at No. 3 after earning a place in the India XI after eight years.Seamer Anshul Kamboj is making his Test debut with Shardul Thakur the other seamer coming into the playing XI. India were dealt with injury blows to Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh and Nitish Kumar Reddy. The last has been ruled out for the remainder of the series.In 1990, Anil Kumble was the last Indian to make his Test debut in Manchester. Interestingly, both Kumble and Kamboj have achieved a 10-wicket haul in first-class cricket.“I was actually confused. Good toss to lose. The way we’ve played in the last three Tests has been outstanding. Some crunch moments we’ve lost, but we’ve won more sessions than them,” said Gill at the toss.“You need a bit of a break. All three Tests were intense. Looks like a good surface. Nice and hard. There’s some forecast around for the four-five days,” he added.England had already announced their playing XI two days in advance with Liam Dawson coming back into the setup at the expense of the injured Shoaib Bashir.“We’re going to have a bowl. Decent overhead conditions for bowling. We’ve had a good break in between. Good chance for everyone to head back home and get the batteries recharged,” said the England skipper Ben Stokes. “Everyone left everything out on the field at Lord’s. We’ve had three games go down to the final session, which says a lot about the quality of the teams. “Typical Manchester wicket. Quite firm. Some grass. Dawson back in the team – long time since the last Test but he’s gone well over the years,” he added.India are yet to secure a Test victory in Manchester, failing to do so in nine previous attempts. In contrast, England have experienced only two losses out of 20 Tests at Old Trafford this century, with 14 wins and 4 draws.Throughout this series, England have won all four tosses. Historically, no team that has won the toss and chosen to bowl first has ever won an Old Trafford Test — there have been 3 such losses and 8 draws.
