🏏India tour of England: Eng vs India, 4th Test. July 23-27, Day 3

India tour of England, 2025: England vs India, 4th Test. July 23-27

Old Trafford was unusually quiet two days out from the Test. The air, grey and heavy, carried little of the usual match-week bustle, apart from the players, who at this point of the series, appeared to be operating on autopilot.

Outside, in nearby Deansgate, preparations were in motion for Manchester Day, the city's annual burst of parades and performance, set to unfold over the weekend. Inside, though, it was about restraint and restarts, as if both teams were still catching their breath eight days after the storm at Lord's.

After the heat of the last Test - both literal and metaphorical - it fell to Rishabh Pant to lighten the mood when the teams crossed paths for the first time in Manchester.

As India wrapped up training, England were just beginning theirs, with Ollie Pope trying to get himself padded up. Walking along the boundary toward the team bus, the Indian vice-captain spotted a stray football. With a gentle swing of his boot, a technique perhaps refined after a recent trip to Manchester United's Carrington training centre, Pant sent the ball skimming along the ground and struck Pope's legs from about 20 yards out.

As a startled Pope turned, Pant crouched down in a mock appeal for LBW, much to his own amusement.

After 15 days of high-intensity cricket, this eight-day break couldn't have come at a better time.

England

England have confirmed their XI, with Liam Dawson replacing the injured Shoaib Bashir in the only change from Lord's. The 35-year-old Dawson, playing his first Test since 2017, adds left-arm orthodox variety to the attack and adds to the team's batting depth with 18 first-class centuries to his name.

Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Liam Dawson, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer

India

The visitors have a few selection calls to make, but Jasprit Bumrah's inclusion is not one of them, almost enforced by the series scoreline. One of them is the third seamer's slot, which is up for grabs, after Akash Deep was ruled out with a groin injury. Gill confirmed that it will be a last-minute toss-up between Prasidh Krishna, who has featured twice this series, and Anshul Kamboj, a recent arrival in the UK. With rain forecast through the Test, India will also weigh the need for a second spinner. And with Nitish Reddy set to make way for a specialist batter - potentially Sai Sudharsan - the bigger question might be whether they can afford to swap the all-round value of Washington Sundar at No. 8 for the seam-bowling heft of Shardul Thakur.

Probable XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar/Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna/Anshul Kamboj

Both teams have taken on heavy tolls. Ben Stokes emptied himself with two lung-busting spells of nine and 10 overs on that final day at Lord's and stayed true to his claims of not wanting to leave his bed for a few days.

Jofra Archer, playing his first Test in four years, didn't wait to get to a bed; he collapsed to the ground, in relief and exhaustion, immediately after that last wicket fell. On the other side, Jasprit Bumrah's workload had stretched beyond his bowling, as he faced 54 pressure-soaked deliveries trying to salvage a lost cause. Each team has lost a player to injury, and each has had to summon for reinforcements.

The mental weight is still harder to measure, but Mohammed Siraj did his best to describe how difficult it had been to move past the image of that final ball, a solid forward defence, middled, yet somehow bowled.

Three Tests in, the margins have been both fine and brutal. And so here we are at 2-1, weighing what-ifs that could just as easily have flipped the numbers on the other side of the hyphen.

After the pause comes the push and Shubman Gill dialled the intensity right back up a day before the game when he invoked 'spirit of cricket' referring to England's time-wasting tactics. The series has shifted back north, not just on the map, but in consequence.

The hosts are one win away from sealing the series. India can still win it - for the first time in England since 2007 - but must take both remaining Tests to do so. That's no easy task for a side with just two wins from their last 11 Tests, a stretch defined by inconsistency and transition.

But like the skies above Old Trafford, heavy and waiting, the tension hangs thick. The fourth chapter is about to unfold.

When: England vs India, 4th Test, July 23-27 2025, 15:30 IST, 11:00 Local

Where: Old Trafford, Manchester

What to expect: Light rain is forecast over the next five days and some disruptions are likely. The surface has seen big first-innings totals in County games earlier this season, though the last of those came in May. There's been a lot of rain in the lead-up, and with overcast conditions expected, teams may prefer to bowl first, but it comes with a dilemma - no team winning the toss and bowling first has ever won an Old Trafford Test.

Did you know?

- Sachin Tendulkar's maiden Test century is the last individual hundred scored by an Indian at Old Trafford. India have played here just once in the last 30 years.

- Joe Root needs only 120 runs to go past Ricky Ponting's run-tally and into second place in the all-time Test match run charts

- Liam Dawson made his debut in the Chennai Test of 2016, the game in which Karun Nair hit 303*

What they said:

"I don't think it's one of those things where we're going to necessarily just go out and start at it. I don't think either team's really looked to do that. I think there's just always going to be a moment in a Test series where something does heat up. It's a massive series and there's a lot of pressure on both teams to perform. The environment when you're out there, obviously there's going to be some moments and some heat showing." - Ben Stokes, on the needle between teams on the last three days of the Lord's Test.

"It is not ideal when you have to, after every match, kind of have to go back and have a different combination. But it was something that I was prepared before the series that there would be a scenario where I would have to have a different combination for every match. So, I kind of planned it before the series how we are going to go about it." - Shubman Gill on having to change his bowling attack for every game.

England have made a solitary change to their playing XI for the fourth Test against India, replacing injured off-spinner Shoaib Bashir with experienced left-arm spinner Liam Dawson. The match, part of the ongoing Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025, begins on July 23 at Old Trafford, with the hosts leading the five-match series 2-1.

The change comes in the wake of Bashir’s unfortunate injury during the third Test at Lord’s. The 20-year-old off-spinner sustained a fracture to the index finger of his left hand while attempting to stop a powerful straight drive from Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja on Day 3. He underwent surgery shortly thereafter and was ruled out of the remainder of the series.

Despite the injury, Bashir played a key role in England’s narrow 22-run victory at Lord’s, claiming the final wicket to seal the win and put the hosts ahead in the series. His performances in the series had earned praise for both control and temperament, especially for a player so early in his international career.

Manchester Test pitch report: Here are the ground conditions of Old Trafford before the fourth India vs England Test starting today.

India’s record at Old TraffordPlayed: 9

Won: 0

Draw: 5

Lost: 4

Last result: India lost by an innings and 54 runs (2014)

Test matches at Old Trafford (since 2000)

Played: 20

Batting first won: 9

Bowling first won: 7

Drawn: 4

Highest score: England 592 vs Australia (2023)

Lowest score: New Zealand 114 vs England (2008)

Highest target chased: England 294/4 vs New Zealand (2008)

Toss factor at Old Trafford (since 2000)

Won the toss and opted to bat: 17 (7W, 7L, 3D)

Won the toss and opted to field: 3 (2L, 1D)

Pitch Report - Old Trafford, Manchester

Old Trafford is expected to serve pace bowlers more than spinners — given its history and the overcast conditions for the next five days.

Since the turn of the century, spinners have taken 147 wickets in 20 matches at an average of 39.95 and bowl at an economy of 3.18. However, pacers have claimed 477 scalps at a sub 30 average.

Chasing hasn’t been easy as well. Only four teams have successfully chased down a fourth innings target here, the highest being 294.

The captain winning the toss will likely look to bat first.