India have awarded a debut Test cap to seamer Anshul Kamboj for the fourth game of Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series against England at Old Trafford on Wednesday. England, who are leading the five-match series 2-1, won the toss and decided to bowl first.
The addition of Kamboj, India's 318th Test player, comes as a replacement for injured Akash Deep, who has a groin injury picked up playing in the last Test at Lord's.
Interestingly, Anil Kumble was the last Indian to make his Test debut in Manchester — and both Kumble and Kamboj have the rare honour of taking 10-wicket hauls in a first-class innings.
In the other XI changes for India, B Sai Sudharsan is in for Karun Nair, with Shardul Thakur in for Nitish Kumar Reddy, who has been forced out of the rest of the series with a left knee injury.
All three replacements put India into a pace-dominated attack with four seamers and back-up from left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja.
India captain Shubman Gill said at the toss,
"I was really confused. The surface is quite good; a good toss to lose. I think the manner in which we have played in the last three matches has been excellent. it's just little, crunch moments that we have lost. All three Tests have been very close, right until the last hour of the final day. You do require a little bit of a break. All three Tests were close. Looks like a fine surface. Nice and hard. There is some forecast around for the four-five days."
England, on the other hand, brought a solitary change to their side. Liam Dawson comes back into the Test team for the first time since eight years ago to replace injured Shoaib Bashir.
Describing his reason for choosing to bowl first, England captain Ben Stokes stated,
"some nice overhead conditions for bowling here, so that is what we are going to do. We have had a good break between the Lord's Test and this one, an opportunity for all of us to get those batteries recharged and hit the ground running here.".
Everyone put it all out on that Lord's outfield on that final day, it was an amazing team performance. The cricket up to this point has been truly exceptional from both sides. We have been battling it out, there has not been much between the teams and hopefully we play some good cricket this week and emerge on the right side of matters."
Stokes also maintains his incredible record in the toss, winning it for the fourth time in succession in the series.
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