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England on Thursday announced their playing XI for the fourth Test against India, starting Friday in Ranchi. The visitors, who trail the five-match series 1-2, have made two changes to the side which suffered a heavy defeat in Rajkot last week. Ollie Robinson and Shoaib Bashir have replaced Mark Wood and Rehan Ahmed. England lost the third Test by 434 runs, the biggest-ever win for India in Tests in terms of runs. The visitors had won the opener in Hyderabad, but have suffered defeats in the last two games and find themselves behind in the series.
Despite his recent struggles, Jonny Bairstow has managed to keep his place in the XI, as earlier suggested by both captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum that they are not worried about the star batter’s form.
Veteran pacer James Anderson also keeps his place despite reports suggesting that he might be rested for the game.
On the eve of the team announcement for the 4th Test, England captain Stokes praised Robinson and said that he has worked “incredibly hard” even after not taking part in the first three Test matches against India.
Adressing the pre-match press conference, Stokes accepted it could be “tough” for a player like Robinson not to be included in the first eleven of the first three Test matches of the five-game series.
“He has worked incredibly hard while he has been out here. And it is tough for someone like Ollie, who’s played such a big part in the game over the last two years, where he has not taken part in a game and the stuff he has done away from the game itself has been very good,” Stokes had said.
Bashir comes back to the side after missing the previous game, replacing the struggling Ahmed.
England playing XI for 4th Test:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Ben Stokes (C), Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes (wk), Tom Hartley, Ollie Robinson, Shoaib Bashir and James Anderson
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