A similar incident has happened with India as well, Rohit Sharma has been found to be Kovid positive but he is expected to make a full recovery before the start of the match. England will make another possible change for the India Test. To lead the bowling unit will be the return of James Anderson, who missed the Headingley match with an ankle injury.
The rescheduled match is a part of last year’s five-match Test series that had to be delayed after the fourth Test due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the Indian camp. This match will be played from 3 pm to 10 pm.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)’s announcement came after the hosts’ seven-wicket win against New Zealand at Headingley. Jonny Bairstow remained unbeaten on 71 off 44 balls while Root scored 86* to guide England to a seven-wicket win.
With the win, England overtook New Zealand in the standings, with a win percentage of 28.89. With a win percentage of 25.93, New Zealand are now ranked last in the table just above Bangladesh.
England Men’s Test Team vs India: Ben Stokes (Durham) Captain, James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonathan Bairstow (Yorkshire), Sam Billings (Kent), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Harry Brooke (Yorkshire), Jack Crawley (Kent), Ben Fox (Surrey), Jack Leach (Somerset), Alex Lees (Durham), Craig Overton (Somerset), Jamie Overton (Surrey), Matthew Potts (Durham), Ollie Pope (Surrey), and Joe Root (Yorkshire).
On Monday, the BCCI included Mayank Agarwal in India’s Test squad for the rescheduled fifth Test as cover for skipper Rohit Sharma, who tested positive for COVID-19. Mayank has left for the UK and will join the team in Birmingham.
India Test squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prashant Krishna and Mayank Agarwal.