England have made two changes for their rescheduled Test match against India. James Anderson will again lead the bowling attack and the unwell Ben Fox has been replaced by Kane’s wicket-keeper batsman Sam Billings. England have somewhat built up their best XI and they would like to continue like this for some time.
Fox was not part of the last two games of the win over New Zealand at Headingley after testing positive for Covid. Billings stepped down as an emergency replacement, and made it to the team through a light training session at Edgbaston on Thursday.
Anderson, 39, is fit again after an ankle injury, with England making the difficult decision to drop Jamie Overton. The Surrey seamer, who scored 97 on debut and took two wickets, could not get past the first-choice trio of Anderson, Stuart Broad and Matthew Potts.
The last match will settle the five-match series that began last summer but ended without a conclusion after India saw concerns over a Covid outbreak take them back hours before the start of play at Old Trafford.
England had the option of handing over the gloves to in-form centurion Jonny Bairstow and giving Yorkshire’s Harry Brooke the first cap in the middle order, but Stokes was unwilling to settle for the player who scored a career-best series against New Zealand.
Stokes also praised Overton, whose partnership with Bairstow saved England from a complete collapse in their first Test innings. But in this match, England decided to go with experience.
Baz McCullum has also shown faith in veteran bowler James Anderson who gave England a good start in the first Test. James Anderson also has statistics against India which can be a big reason.
The bad news for India is that Rohit Sharma will not be a part of the team, he is unwell due to Kovid and is in isolation. It will be interesting to see who will take over the captaincy in his absence.