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The Indian cricket team is currently touring England for a five-match Test series. However, with three Tests done and dusted, England lead the series by 2-1 margin after they defeated India by 22 runs at the Lord’s, earlier this week. The action now shifts towards the fourth Test, which will be played from July 23 to July 27 at the Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester.
As the Men in Blue will hope to come back stronger in order to level the series and take it into the decider, the two teams will have a lot to ponder upon. While the England side will see a change after Shoaib Bashir was ruled out of the remaining Tests, India too has some injury struggles. While Rishabh Pant is recovering from a finger injury, the visitors too have to manage Jasprit Bumrah’s workload, a talk which has been on since the day squad was announced.
He’ll have to keep and he’ll have to bat: Ravi Shastri on Rishabh Pant ahead of 4th Test
With Team India having a daunting task to finalise their XI for the Manchester Test, former India cricketer and head coach Ravi Shastri shared his opinion on the same. Speaking with ICC ahead of the fourth Test, Shastri was of the opinion that Rishabh Pant should be rested if he can’t keep the wickets. "He'll have to field, and if he fields, that'll be worse. With the gloves, at least there's some protection. Without gloves, if he gets something that stings him there, then it won't be very good. It'll worsen the injury,” Shastri said.
“He’ll have to keep and he’ll have to bat. He can’t do one of the two. If it’s a fracture, he should rest and be ready for The Oval. But if not, he has about nine days to recover," Shastri further asserted. In the third Test, Pant sustained a finger injury on the opening day and refrained from keeping the wickets in the entire match. In his absence, Dhruv Jurel was seen behind the wickets.
India’s Test squad for England series
Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (VC & WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
