England captain Alastair Cook won the toss and elected to bat first in the fifth and the final Test against India at Chennai.
Both teams made a couple of changes to their playing eleven that featured in the Mumbai Test. For England, Stuart Broad, who missed the last two Tests due to a foot injury, replaced James Anderson while Liam Dawson was handed his maiden cap in place of Chris Woakes.
On the other hand, India welcomed back Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma in the playing XI. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the in-form Jayant Yadav were left out.
Here is what the captains said at the toss:
Virat Kohli: “Not such a bad position to be in. Winning the toss, the pressure is on the side that has to put up the runs. We will try to make important breakthroughs. Good wicket this, a bit of dampness for the past few days. It’s the best session for our seamers to bowl actually. Winning is a great habit and we have created that. Important to carry on, do the good work and it’s important to not take the foot off the pedal. Losing two tosses and winning those games – that’s the kind of thing that makes you a better team. We are playing some good cricket and that’s exactly our motivation. Chennai is always a place where we love playing. The crowd knows what the team is trying to do. Two local boys, so a special occasion for them. They are ready to go. Ashwin has been a match winner for us for a while. I wish them luck.”
Alastair Cook: “Yeah. It’s a good toss to win and we will bat first. Looks a very good surface considering what has happened over the last week. Never seen a pitch dried with coal before. It can be a blessing in disguise, not having nets before the game. We need to mentally get ourselves right. We have one opportunity to do that. Liam Dawson is on debut, proud moment for him. Broad is back, Jimmy and Woakes miss out.”
Meanwhile, the hosts will look to continue their impressive run in the series. MA Chidambaram Stadium has been a happy hunting ground India as they have not lost a single game in Chennai since 1999. The last time these two teams met here, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag played memorable knocks to help their team chase down 387 runs on the final day.
With the series already sealed 3-0, Virat Kohli’s men will look to extend their unbeaten run to 18 games. The hosts are on a 17-match unbeaten streak which equals their record of 17 Tests without a defeat between September 1985 and March 1987 and considering the form they are in, they should back themselves to break the record.
Moreover, the Indian team will also look to record their biggest Test series win over the visitors. India’s biggest series win against the English team came in 1992 when Mohammad Azharuddin led them to 3-0 win over Graha Gooch’s men.
Teams:
India Playing XI: Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Karun Nair, Parthiv Patel(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma
England Playing XI: Alastair Cook(c), Keaton Jennings, Joe Root, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow(w), Jos Buttler, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, Liam Dawson, Jake Ball