England vs India: Michael Vaughan picks England's XI for the fourth Test in Southampton

The Joe Root-led England team will be taking on Team India in the fourth Test match of the series at The Rose Bowl in Southampton, which will be beginning from tomorrow. The Virat Kohli-led side will be coming into this Test match after a sensational performance in the previous Test match, whereas, the hosts English team will also be looking for the upcoming Test match as an opportunity to win the series here and make the final Test match a dead rubber contest.

However, going into this fourth Test match, England seem to have more problems especially with the form shown by their batters in the series so far, than India who are likely to field the same playing XI for the first time under Virat’s leadership, unless there are any major injury concerns.

Michael Vaughan chooses his playing XI for the Southampton Test

Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan who has been himself part of many famous India-England contests, has been quite vocal on sharing his views about the current series through his Twitter handle.  He recently tweeted his playing XI which the England side should most likely field in the Southampton Test match.

Vaughan picked Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings as his opening pair, despite their disappointing form in the first three games. In an interesting selection, he suggested the case to promote Jonny Bairstow up the order in the third position ahead of skipper Joe Root.

Bairstow who seems to be recovering well from his thumb injury is most likely to play in the upcoming Test match as a specialist batsman, despite his recent reluctance to give up his wicket-keeping job. Vaughan picked Root to play at four, followed by all-rounder Ben Stokes and then the young Ollie Pope.

This batting order also allows Pope to play at his favourable No 6 slot, where he has been batting well for his county side, Surrey. The former England skipper picked Jos Buttler to play as a wicket-keeper batsman as he is in a good touch after scoring a staggering hundred in the last Test.

Vaughan also picked left-arm fast bowler Sam Curran in the playing XI ahead of all-rounder Chris Woakes as the latter is reportedly a doubtful starter because of the thigh injury, which also earlier forced him to miss the limited overs series against India. He selected the rest of the bowling attack same as the previous Test matches, with the experienced duo of James Anderson and Stuart Broad taking the new ball and leg-spinner Adil Rashid as the only spinner in the England team.

New Test team for Southampton now I have heard about niggles & conditions … Cook,Jennings,Bairstow,Root,Stokes,Pope,Buttler(wk),Curran,Rash,Broad & Anderson .. In Batting order … #ENGvIND

— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) August 29, 2018

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