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With the five-match Test series currently standing 2-1 in favour of England, the Shubman Gill and Co. will hope to come back strongly in order to level the series and take it into the decider, which is set to be played from July 31 to August 4 at the Kennington Oval in London. Coming into the third Test after a 336-run win in Birmingham, India went down by 22 runs in pulsating action on the final day.
However, with a lot at stake, they will hope to bounce back in the fourth Test, which is scheduled to be played from July 23 to July 27 at Old Trafford. But as they eye to put their best show, the visitors are struggling with the fitness of wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant. Notably, Pant sustained a finger injury on the opening day of the Lord’s Test. As a result, he did not keep the wickets, but continued to bat, scoring 74 and 9 across the two innings.
Rishabh Pant unlikely to keep wickets in fourth Test vs England
With only a few days left for the fourth Test, India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate shared an update on Pant’s injury. The former cricketer revealed that the team management is acting cautiously with Pant's injury and a call will be taken only before the game. He also added that Pant will bat before the Manchester Test and a call on his availability will be taken after seeing that. "He (Pant) will bat in Manchester before the Test. Look, I don't think you're gonna keep Rishabh out of the Test no matter what. He batted with quite a lot of pain in the 3rd Test, and it's only going to get easier on his finger,” Ten Doeschate said.
He also added that India need Pant the batter as he said, “Keeping is the last part of the process. We need to make sure that he can keep — we don't want to go through that again where we have to replace the keeper halfway through an innings.” Notably, after the conclusion of the third Test, India captain Shubman Gill was also inquired of Rishabh Pant’s availability for fourth Test, to which he responded, "Rishabh went for scans. There is no major injury so he should be fine for fourth Test in Manchester."
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.
