Dark clouds hover over the Oval ahead of the start of the first day of the fifth Test between India and England. (Express Photo by Sandeep Dwivedi)With the fate of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 hinging on the fifth and final Test at the Oval, rain might make things tricky with dark clouds hovering over the ground. Right after England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope won the toss and opted to bowl first, it started drizzling which forced grounds staff to pull over the covers. The game did start on time despite the brief spells of rain.
Half an hour before the start of play too, a modest drizzle had forced the grounds staff to cover the central square. Early morning rains and cloud-cover made for a gloomy Oval. As both the teams trained, it seemed like ‘win toss, bowl first’ kind of Test. And there was no surprise as Pope won the toss and asked India to bat first.
However, weather forecast said it was to be a rainy day with frequent breaks expected. It is expected to be a day that the pace bowlers will relish and batsmen will dread.
Accuweather’s weather predictions for Thursday, the first day of the 5th Test state: “Rather cloudy; a couple of morning showers followed by occasional rain and a thunderstorm this afternoon.”
England currently lead the five-match series 2-1 heading into the final Test.
As reported by The Indian Express, India did make four changes to their playing XI for the final Test: Jasprit Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Anshul Kamboj and Shardul Thakur missing out while Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel, Akash Deep and Karun Nair making it to the XI.
England too have made changes to their playing XI with captain Ben Stokes out injured. Besides their talismanic captain, the hosts have also rested Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse and Liam Dawson. In their place, England have named Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue, Jamie Overton and Gus Atkinson into the playing XI with Pope handed captaincy.
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