🏏India tour of England 2025: 5th Test: Eng vs India- Oval, London🏏

🏏India tour of England 2025: 5th Test: England vs India, Oval-31July- Aug04🏏

Here is the fifth and final test to level the series for India!

India is likely to go with an extra batsman in Karun Nair for the all-important final Test of the India-England series. He will be coming in place of pace all-rounder Shardul Thakur, who played the fourth Test.

The pace department is also expected to see a couple of changes. Jasprit Bumrah and Anshul Kamboj will make way for Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna, with Mohammed Siraj being the spearhead. Meanwhile, Dhruv Jurel will replace the injured wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant, who was ruled out of the series because of fracture of the foot.

In case India go with this combination, bowlers Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh would finish the tour without getting a game. With the pitch having a layer of grass, left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep once again failed to make the cut. And that is also the reason India bolstered their batting line-up.

The Bumrah temptation

On the match eve, there was a point of view that Bumrah might play his fourth Test of the series in Oval despite the team management’s workload considerations and the pre-decided plan to play him just three Tests.

India and England have taken the scenic route to The Oval. Five-day Tests, all four of them. No result handed over easily, no match blown away in a blur. Every session - there have been 59 in all - has stretched and breathed. Fitting, really, for a series just renamed after Tendulkar and Anderson - two men who made longevity in this format an art.

But the series hasn't just gone the distance, it's also taken a toll. Seven bowlers have sent down more than 100 overs. At Old Trafford, Ben Stokes winced through cramp in his hamstring and pain in his bicep. Jasprit Bumrah willed himself through that Test, squeezing out whatever was left, even if only one ball out of 198 crept above 140 kph on the speed gun. The England captain is now ruled out with injury; India's talisman is likely to be rested, to avoid the same aftershock of overexertion. But others, like Chris Woakes or Mohammed Siraj, will have to run again, under the shadow of the old gasometer, decommissioned long ago and now being repurposed into flats, not much use for refuelling bowling tanks anyway.

It felt inevitable. With efforts this large being summoned, something had to give. In this case, the mind as much as the bodies. The mood, unsurprisingly, has curdled over the last two Tests - edgy, antagonistic. India will still feel they hold the moral victory: for how they stayed firm in Manchester, before and during handshake-gate, and for how visibly it unsettled their opponents. They'll also know, in a series of small margins and long days, they could just as easily have been the side leading 2-1. But the ledger still has room for balance. One final push, one last spell of resolve - and they could walk from The Oval all square.

When: England vs India, 5th Test, July 31 - August 4 2025, 15:30 IST, 11:00 Local

Where: The Oval, London

What to expect: London baked under a heatwave just three weeks ago before the Lord's Test, but now the weather has cooled, with light rain forecast on at least three days, including the opener. Every County Championship game here this season saw teams bowl first, and the highest scores usually come in the third innings. The one outlier came in the most recent fixture: Surrey's mammoth 820/9 declared after being sent in by Durham, powered by Dom Sibley's triple hundred. But "this one looks to have a lot more live grass on the wicket than the other wickets we've been on," Stokes said on match eve. England have also dropped their specialist spinner. So expect a bit more assistance there for the seamers.

Pitch report

Heading into the series decider, India will be buoyed by the fightback and look to clinch a win to level the series 2-2. The Oval pitch traditionally favors batters, and a recent county match at the venue produced nearly 1,500 runs across both innings.

Historically, the ground has been known for producing high scores, especially during dry spells, as seen in this summer. The average first-innings total at The Oval stands at a healthy 343, though weather conditions may affect how the surface behaves during the match.

London Weather Report

Conditions in London could play a key role. The forecast for Thursday, the opening day, includes overcast skies with humidity and the possibility of afternoon showers. The trend continues with cloudy spells over the next couple of days and more rain predicted for the weekend.

As per Weather.com, Temperatures are expected to hover between 14°C and 24°C, accompanied by winds reaching up to 13 km/h and humidity levels around 88%.

Team News:

England

The hosts will be without their talismanic captain for the final Test, with Surrey's own Ollie Pope stepping in to lead. His county teammates Gus Atkinson and Jamie Overton return to the XI after building up their workloads in a second XI game and a county fixture, respectively. Also absent is Jofra Archer with back-to-back Tests deemed a stretch at this stage of his belated return. Stokes has been replaced by Jacob Bethell, who slots in at No. 6 and offers left-arm spin to cover for the omission of Liam Dawson, as England opt for a four-seamer setup.

Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton, Josh Tongue

India

The obvious switch is that of Dhruv Jurel coming in for the injured Rishabh Pant. The absence of their most consistent batter from the last five years will test any temptation to veer away from sacrificing depth for more bowling bite. Akash Deep is set to return and Bumrah is likely to be rested although Gill wanted to keep his cards close to his chest. That would leave India with a toss-up between Prasidh Krishna or Arshdeep Singh to replace Anshul Kamboj, who had a slow start to his Test career in Manchester. The pitch and India's need for depth is likely to rule Kuldeep Yadav out of contention once again.

Probable XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shardul Thakur, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna/Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj.

Did you know?

- India have two wins (1971 and 2021) from 15 Tests at The Oval. They beat England here in 2021 but lost their last game here, the WTC Final against Australia in 2023

- Shubman Gill needs 89 runs to beat Sir Don Bradman's record of 810 runs in Ashes 1936/37 - the most for anyone in a debut series as captain

- Joe Root has two hundreds at The Oval, both against India - 149* in 2014 and 125 in 2018.

What they said:

"Yeah, it's been a tough, gruelling series, but it's class to play. It's a real test of character, it's a test of physicality, all that kind of stuff. And I think that the way in which both teams have, you know, fronted up every single day and every single session and given everything for their countries is testament to how much this format means to England and India and every other team in the world." - Ben Stokes

"If you look at the kind of cricket that we have played, sometimes the scorecard of the series doesn't determine that. I think every match that we have played, it was very difficult to decide which team is going to win after four days of cricket. If we are able to do that for every match, for four matches coming outside of India with a relatively young team, I think it is going to be a big achievement for us if we are able to level the series. And the series has been a great learning curve for me. You know, there are some things that you can only learn from experience. And I've learned so much from these four matches that we have played. And hopefully, we are going to finish on a high." - Shubman Gill

In Short

• India head into Oval Test trailing the series 2-1
• The momentum is on India's side after the Manchester draw
• A green wicket is likely to be on offer for the series finale

"It is going to be a big achievement for us if we are able to level the series," said Shubman Gill in the pre-match press conference ahead of fifth Test against England at the Oval. The India captain is indeed right, before they flew to England, the projected scoreline of the series was predicted to be 5-0, 4-0 or best 4-1 in England’s favour.

However, what captain Gill and his men have been able to achieve so far on the tour has been nothing short of extraordinary. Even though England are leading by 2-1 heading into the final Test, India have caught everyone’s attention with their ‘never-say-die’ attitude, which has come to the fore in all four Tests as new heroes have emerged every time the team was down and out.

Hence, a victory at the Oval will be the perfect way to sign off from the tour for India’s young brigade, who’ve clearly punched above their weight time and again against England’s Bazballers. The Shubman Gill-led side has the momentum on their side heading into the final chapter of what has been an enthralling series for the connoisseurs of the game.

The way Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar held fort for India in their second innings in Manchester, was a testament to their resolve of not going down without a fight on the tour so far. The effects of their resilience were clearly shown on the faces of Ben Stokes and his men, who looked rattled late on Day 5 and wanted to end their agony soon.

Ben Stokes to miss 5th Test against India, England make 4 changes to playing XI

The events have served as a perfect prelude to the final showdown at the Oval. For England, Stokes and his men would’ve ideally wanted the series firmly in their grasp by now after dominating the majority of the Manchester Test. However, continuing the trend of epic finishes on Day 5 of the series so far, India pulled a rabit out of the hat to bat 143 overs to keep the hosts at bay.

With both teams not giving an inch to each other across four Tests, it’s highly unlikely that the fifth match would prove to be something different as both teams have a lot to play for at the Oval. Hence, another epic clash awaits us as India will play to salvage their pride while England will aim to crush their hopes of any comeback.