Chris Woakes apart, England were compelled to field an all-new bowling attack for the final Test at The Oval. The original and the replacements proved more than up to the task on a stop-start Day One on Thursday, working through the Indian top order with no little help from the opposition skipper. 

Shubman Gill called wrong for the fifth Test in a row and Ollie Pope, standing in for the injured Ben Stokes, had an easy decision to make — stick the opposition in. It’s a method England prefer because they like chasing in the fourth innings, but this time, their call was influenced not just by the heavy cloud crowd, but a generous coating of live grass that was bound to bring seam into play. At the time of going to press, India were 153-6.

Pacer Bumrah rested

England had announced their four changes the day before the game; India matched them by resting Jasprit Bumrah, and leaving out Anshul Kamboj and Shardul Thakur, bringing back Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and Karun Nair; Dhruv Jurel for the out-of-commission Rishabh Pant was an open secret.