England announces their playing XI for the third Test

England have followed their norm of announcing the playing XI ahead of the third Test against India at Trent Bridge. They have left out Sam Curran and included Ben Stokes who was recently cleared of all the charges for his involvement in the Bristol brawl in September last year. The former, however, is the unlucky player as he was the Man of the Match at Edgbaston for his all-round heroics.

England skipper Joe Root revealed his team’s playing XI in the pre-match press conference and was gutted to leave out the young Curran despite performing well. Stokes’ inclusion is the only change in England’s Lord’s winning line-up. They will be itching to seal the series in the third game itself by defeating the low on confidence opponents.

Though the rest of the line-up is similar, there will be pressure on the batsmen to perform whose poor form has been covered by the brilliance of the all-rounders. It was Curran who helped in the series opener, while at Lord’s Chris Woakes scored a century.

Unlucky Curran

Sam Curran must feel dejected for being left out despite performing exceptionally well in the first Test. It was him who opened the floodgates in the first innings when the openers Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan were looking comfortable at 50/0. Then he also went on to play a game-changing knock in the second innings when his team was down and out at 87/7.

The pressure will be on Stokes now to perform immediately as a promising player has been dropped to accommodate him in the line-up. He has been bowling well recently but his exploits with the bat are not good of late which has put the batsmen lower down the order under pressure.

Here’s England’s playing XI: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (c), Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Stuart Brod, James Anderson

[interaction id=”5b74071cafc9e451961cb94d”]

Keep following CricTracker for more news and updates.