LONDON: India captain Rohit Sharma has been ruled out of the rescheduled fifth Test against England beginning on Friday and seamer Jasprit Bumrah will lead the side instead, the touring team said on Thursday.

Rohit was doubtful for the clash since he tested positive for Covid-19 during a warm-up match in Leicester last week.

He had a Rapid Antigen Test on Thursday and returned a positive result, which snuffed out his chances of playing in the match at Edgbaston.

India faced a leadership crisis with vice-captain KL Rahul also missing the match to have surgery for a sports hernia in Germany.

Bumrah will lead the side with wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant as his deputy, the team said in a statement.

Mayank Agarwal has joined the squad as cover but India have yet to decidie who will be Shubman Gill’s opening partner in Rohit’s absence.

Coach Rahul Dravid has said they have two more options in stumper-batsman K.S. Bharat and top order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara.

India are 2-1 up in the series which could not be completed last year because of Covid-19 cases in the India camp ahead of the final match at Old Trafford.

England, meanwhile, have recalled fast bowler James Anderson, who missed the conclusion of England’s series whitewash of New Zealand when an ankle injury ruled him out of the third Test at Headingley.

Anderson told reporters on Wednesday he couldn’t wait to rejoin a “fearless” England team, unlike any he has known in two decades of international cricket, in this week’s long-delayed India series finale.

Friday’s match in Birmingham comes just four days after England completed a 3-0 rout of Test world champions New Zealand.

Before that series, England had won just one of 17 Tests. That was against India in Leeds last year.

Anderson, England’s record wicket-taker in Test cricket, will replace Jamie Overton and his duel with India stalwart Virat Kohli will be an interesting sub-plot of the match.

England captain Ben Stokes sympathised with Overton, whose 97 with the bat in the third Test against New Zealand was crucial to England’s turnaround in Leeds.

“That’s how sport at the top level works sometimes,” Stokes said. “It must be very disappointing for him but he can walk away knowing he did everything he could.”

With Ben Foakes recovering from Covid-19, Kent’s Sam Billings was retained as the wicketkeeper.

“[Foakes] hasn’t really recovered from last week and doesn’t feel like he could give the best account of himself this week,” Stokes told reporters at Edgbaston on Thursday. “We took the decision out of his hands and said ‘get yourself better’.”

England’s aggressive brand of cricket under coach Brendon McCullum shone in their 3-0 victory against the world test champions New Zealand.

That approach was unlikely to change against India.

“We’ve just beaten the best team in the world 3-0,” Stokes said. “India are obviously a completely different opposition, different dynamic of team, but we concentrate on ourselves, we understand what we do well,” he added.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2022