Joe Root announces England's playing eleven for the Southampton Test

England started their five-match Test series against India on an impressive note courtesy of a couple of resounding victories at Edgbaston and Lord’s respectively. However, they couldn’t replicate their form in the third Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham and slumped to defeat by a mammoth margin of 203 runs. Despite the defeat, the Three Lions have the upper hand as they are 2-1 up in the series.

The fourth Test is scheduled to be played from tomorrow at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton. The venue has hosted only a couple of Tests, one against Sri Lanka and the other against India. The Poms are unbeaten at the venue and would be hoping to recollect themselves from the drubbing in the last match. Meantime, Joe Root has announced England’s playing eleven as per reports in www.ecb.co.uk.

We’ve bounced back from difficult defeats before

England have decided to sideline Ollie Pope, who couldn’t quite deliver since his debut in the Lord’s Test. Updating about his exclusion and his replacement, Root said, “Chris Woakes is not fit to play this week and Ben Stokes has a slight issue so for the balance of the side Moeen Ali comes in for Ollie Pope.

The English captain also cleared the air surrounding Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow’s role. “Jos Buttler is going to keep. It’s a lot to ask Jonny to do it with a broken finger, but he’s fit to bat. We have to do the best thing for this team to win the game. There are no guarantees in international sport,” he remarked.

Root also mentioned that Moeen Ali deservingly made his way into the squad courtesy of his impressive performances in the domestic circuit. “Moeen Ali has done exactly what you’d want him to do, he’s been scoring runs and taking wickets in county cricket and should be full of confidence, We’ve bounced back from difficult defeats before and that’s the challenge for us to do it again here,” Root added.

Here is the playing eleven

Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (c), Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (w), Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

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