England, as expected, make four changes to a winning team, and this may be the first time they have ever done in the middle of the series. In addition to Stone replacing Archer (sore elbow), Ben Foakes takes over behind the stumps from Jos Buttler (on leave), Stuart Broad replaces Jimmy Anderson (rest), best by Moeen Ali Dom Bess – released after bowling three full throws into a series to Kohli, but also after getting out.
India makes just all three changes, including Patel for Shahbaz Nadeem, Siraj for Bumrah, and Kuldeep for Sundar. But that’s three of their five mattresses, so they’ll all be fresh except for Ishant and Ashwin. Everyone said, five archers out of the front line ten from last time will not be playing here.
India 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Cheteshwar Pujara, 4 Virat Kohli (capt), 5 Ajinkya Rahane, 6 Rishabh Pant (wkt), 7 Axar Patel, 8 Ravi Ashwin, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Mohammed Siraj.
England 1 Rory Burns, 2 Dom Sibley, 3 Dan Lawrence, 4 Joe Root (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Ollie Pope, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Ben Foakes (wkt), 9 Jack Leach, 10 Stuart Broad, 11 Olly Stone.