India vs England: A nail-biter for deciding the second finalist of ICC World Test Championship is coming up

In international cricket, the England cricket team is now touring India for Test, ODI, and T20 bilateral series. The series features 4 Test matches, 3 ODIs, and 5 T20I matches, the test series has started at first. So far 3 Test matches have been played. The last match was played on February 24 & 25 at the Narendra Modi Stadium (Ahmedabad). The hosts, India won by a huge margin of 10 wickets against England. After winning the match, India leads the four-match Test series (2-1) and also are at the top of the points table of the World Test Championship.

England lost by 10 wickets within 2 days in the Ahmedabad Test. Winning the toss, Joe Root’s team came to bat first. But in the first innings, they were all out for only 112 runs. The spinners had picked up 28 of the 30 wickets taken in two days. India’s left-arm spinner Axar Patel was the man of the match with 11 wickets. Ashwin took 7 wickets. England’s part-time spinner Root also took 5 wickets conceding only 8 runs in 6 overs. 

However, after a huge 227-run defeat to England in the first match, it is unbelievable for India to return to the series with such power. In the second Test, Virat Kohli’s team left the field with a huge victory of 317 runs. And the third Test match could not be rolled on to the third day in the flash of Axar and Ashwin. Besides, Indian batsman Rohit Sharma picked up runs smoothly on the wicket where the batsmen could not survive. With 65 in the first innings and 25 not out in the second innings, Rohit has come up to the eighth position in the Test batsman rankings for the first time in his career.

There was a lot of speculation about this series before the series started. Because England has won 48 of the 125 Test matches between the two teams so far, India has won 28, and 49 of them were drawn. India won the series in 2016 by defeating the visitors (4-0). In 2018, England (4-1) won the series by defeating the visitors in the last Test series between the two teams. Even though England is ahead in the record, India is always a hot favorite team on their soil. Moreover, India has now mastered how to make a comeback to the series after losing the first match. For which Virat Kohli’s team really deserves praises. They reflected this quality in the last Australia series and the repetition of which is now seen in the England series as well.

The last match of the series will be played on March 4 at the Narendra Modi Stadium (Ahmedabad). This match will decide the team, who is going to be the second finalist of the ICC World Test Championship. If India wins or draws in this match, they will advance to the final. On the other hand, if England wins, Australia will participate in the final match of the ICC World Test Championship with the first finalist New Zealand.

Test Squad

India – Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Shubman Gill, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli (c), Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Wriddhiman Saha, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Axar Patel, Ishant Sharma

England – Joe Root (c), Dominic Bess, Rory Burns, Zak Crawley, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ben Foakes, Jack Leach, Dominic Sibley, Chris Woakes, Daniel Lawrence, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood

The final Test will not only decide the series, it will be the decider for the second finalist of the ICC World Test Championship. Predict the winner & play on Baji!