England recalled Mark Wood as they seek to end the long tour of India on a high, with skipper Ben Stokes insisting: “We won’t think about the flight home until we’re on it.”
A trip that began with a training camp in the UAE in mid-January draws to a climax with the Fifth Test in Dharamshala from Thursday morning, bringing the curtain down on a winter that also included a wearying Cricket World Cup defence in India at the back end of last year.
India’s five-wicket victory in Ranchi last month means the Test series is already settled, but a 3-1 scoreline does not tell the full story of England’s competitive show — and Stokes is determined that his side will not treat this week’s contest as a dead-rubber.
“Lots of teams come to India with long tours and long series,” he said.
“It wouldn’t be a lie to say teams can think about the flight [home] before the game has started. Hand on heart, that’s not where we’re at, that’s not our mentality, that’s not our mindset. We’ll think about the plane when we’re on it, when the game is done and we’re on the way home.
“We’re here for another five or six days — and all our mindset is on is what we need to do to win this game.”
England this morning named their team, with the pace of Wood preferred to Ollie Robinson in the sole change to the XI after the Sussex seamer’s underwhelming show on comeback in Ranchi, where he went wicketless in India’s first innings and was unused in the second.
Robinson was one of two players to miss training today through illness, but Stokes is confident that the other, spinner Shoaib Bashir, will be fit to play. With Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed back in the UK, England do not have a like-for-like replacement available.
“I don’t think it’s anything to be too concerned about,” Stokes said. “They both woke up with slightly upset stomachs, and the day before the game you don’t want to put anybody at risk, so we’ve decided to keep them away.”
Dharamshala, in the Himalayan foothills, is traditionally India’s most seam-friendly ground, and England had toyed with naming three quicks in their line-up for the first time on the tour. Inspection of what appears a good pitch has prompted a re-think, with Bashir and Tom Hartley retained as a spin pair and Wood joined by James Anderson, who needs just two wickets to become the first seamer to 700 in Tests.
“We thought there would be a bit more grass on the wicket, but overall I think the wicket looks an absolute belter,” Stokes explained. “I’m confident with the team we’ve gone for.”
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