LONDON: England and India head to the Oval for the decisive fifth and final Test of a hard-fought campaign on Thursday, with both teams battling mental and physical fatigue.
A congested schedule of five Tests in less than seven weeks has proved gruelling, especially for the fast bowlers from both teams, with every match going the distance so far.
Remarkably, India can still end the series all square at 2-2 after salvaging an unlikely draw in the fourth Test at Old Trafford, keeping the hosts on the field for 143 overs in their second innings.
Tensions spiked at the end of the game when India allowed Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar to complete their centuries after England captain Ben Stokes offered to shake hands on a draw, adding spice to the Oval Test.
Here are the key talking points ahead of the fifth Test in London.
Jasprit Bumrah’s back injury earlier this year prompted India to announce the fast bowler would only feature in three games during the current series.
The world’s top-ranked Test bowler made his third appearance on a docile pitch in Manchester and has little time to recover after bowling a gruelling 33 overs, during which he took two wickets.
But India coach Gautam Gambhir says all of his squad’s quicks are fit for the finale including Akash Deep, who took 10 wickets in Bumrah’s absence during India’s 336-run win in the second Test at Edgbaston before suffering a groin injury in the next match at Lord’s.
England must decide whether to risk express paceman Jofra Archer, who has bowled nearly 90 overs in two Tests after more than four years of injury-enforced exile.
The home team took just four wickets on a flat Old Trafford pitch during India’s battling second innings, with seamer Brydon Carse also worked hard.
Jamie Overton has been added to an England squad that already has extra pace options in Josh Tongue and Gus Atkinson.
Can England stop skipper Ben Stokes from bowling himself into the ground at the Oval?
The Old Trafford match was a personal triumph for the all-rounder, who became just the fourth England cricketer to score a hundred and take five wickets in the same Test.
Stokes has now sent down 140 overs — the most he has bowled in any series — — and is the leading wicket-taker on either side with 17 scalps.
Yet in Manchester he was in evident pain, often clutching his thigh as well as nursing a bicep injury.
With the skippercentral to England’s hopes of regaining the Ashes on their upcoming tour of Australia, concerns remain over his workload.
“Bowling, being in the field is tough work, so I am pretty sore,” said Stokes after the fourth Test. “We are going in 2-1 up but we want to put that last big performance in.”
Captaincy appears to be doing wonders for the career of previously inconsistent India batsman Shubman Gill.
The elegant 25-year-old scored his fourth century of an extraordinary debut series as skipper at Old Trafford.
He came in with the tourists in dire straits at 0-2 in their second innings, responding with a marathon 103 in 238 balls that laid the foundations for a great escape.
Gill has set a new record for the most runs scored by an India batsman in a series against England of 722, surpassing team-mate Yashasvi Jaiswal’s tally of 712 in 2023/24.
At the Oval he could eclipse Sunil Gavaskar’s all-time India series record of 774 runs, set in a four-match campaign against the West Indies in 1971.
One downside for Gill is that he will be without vice-captain and prolific runscorer Rishabh Pant, who sustained a foot fracture in Manchester.
