England have drafted Mark Wood into the playing XI to replace Ollie Robinson for the fifth Test against India. There were suggestions that the visitors could field an extra seamer in the chilly climes of Dharamsala but after another inspection of the playing surface, Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have opted to retain the same bowling combination that featured in Ranchi.
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England XI for Dharamsala Test: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, Mark Wood, James Anderson
That means England will have two seamers and two frontline spinners with Joe Root rolling his arm over to provide another spin option. It remains to be seen if Stokes will push himself to bowl in the series finale having flirted with the idea since the start of the second Test in Vizag.
Wood has featured in two Tests – Hyderabad and Rajkot – of the series so far for returns of four wickets at an average of 55.5 with England opting to rest the speedster after each of his two appearances.
Ben Stokes: Before we even got here, we were thinking of three seamers and one spinner. But turning up yesterday (Tuesday) and seeing the wicket and seeing it again today, going with two seamers and two spinners is probably the right call.
We thought there will be a bit more grass on the wicket just because of where we are, but overall, the wicket looks like a belter. So, two seamers and two spinners gives us a good mixture when you are a little bit unsure about what it (pitch) could do as the Test match goes on. We are confident with the team we are going with.
I am in the position where I get to see all the hard work that goes into players giving themselves the best chance of being on the field. I get to see how everyone in the group prepares and the effort that they put in. Robinson did everything in his power to put in a match-winning performance last week, and unfortunately, not everything works out like you want it to.
So when you see someone putting in the hard work and showing the desire, and then something happens that is uncontrollable, you can’t really moan about it. Yes it’s not been the first time. When someone is not doing the right thing, then you can question that. But when you see people working as hard as everyone does, it is very hard to go against that person. I see everyone’s work ethic.
