ENG v IND 2018: 3 possible changes that the Indian team can make to win the fifth Test at the Oval

India has lost the England series as they conceded a lead of 3-1 in the five-match series.

Team India lost their second straight Test series outside Asia, as England won the fourth Test at Southampton and earned a 3-1 lead in the five-match Pataudi Trophy.

Earlier, India had lost the Test series to South Africa 2-1 and this defeat at the hands of England raises many questions over the no.1 ranked Test side.

Also, a glaring inability of the Indian team has come to light. Indian team has lost the three Tests by 31 runs, an innings and 159 runs and 60 runs and it has been more or less cemented that Indian team cannot chase a total over 200 in the fourth innings.

Team India has been hampered by the failures of their openers, some bad decisions in team selection have earned failures overseas. In the four chases - two in South Africa and two in England, the top three have scored a total of just 119 runs in 12 innings and no one has reached 20.

India can only save face now and try to win the fifth and final Test to end the England tour on a high.

Let’s have a look at the three possible changes that Team India should make to win the last Test

Prithvi Shaw for Shikhar Dhawan

18-year-old wonder boy Prithvi Shaw has been gaining some momentum with his performances in the Indian domestic circuit after leading the Indian U19 team to the World Cup win earlier this year.

He has 1418 runs in 14 FC matches with 7 centuries and a best of 188 to his name. Shaw also had a very good outing for India A on tour to England and against South Africa A, which earned him a call-up to the Indian team. Shaw is an attacking batsman who deserves a chance in the Indian team at expense of Shikhar Dhawan, who has scored 150 odd runs in the England Tests but has not scored a single fifty on the whole tour of England. He has gotten starts but has failed to go on to make a big score and has generally struggled against the movement and swing generated by the likes of Anderson and Broad.

Shaw likes to go after the bowling and can counter-attack well against Anderson and Broad and it might be a mouth-watering battle of the veteran England pacers against a young Turk, whose exploits have gotten him comparisons with the great Sachin Tendulkar.

Karun Nair for Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya is the only Indian player to feature in all the Tests played this year by the team including the series against South Africa and England. However, the performances in Test matches by the all-rounder who has some serious backing from the team management and captain, have been underwhelming.

He had one inning of notice against South Africa, a 93 and against England, he starred in the Nottingham Test win with a fifer and 52*. However, in more trying conditions at Lord’s or Southampton and Birmingham, he failed to perform with both bat and ball and results have been drastically not in favor of his team.

Indian captain Virat Kohli invested a lot of faith and interest in Pandya, but the development of the all-rounder as a Test player has not been on par with what was expected. For someone who has been compared to the great Kapil Dev, Pandya has not performed to his potential and time has come to move on from him and team management must look for a proper batsman in his place.

The best choice India has is Karun Nair, who has a triple century to his name against the same opposition. He has spent his whole tour to England twiddling his thumbs in the dressing room and should have been included in the playing XI much earlier.

Nair has shown the appetite for runs at the domestic level and requires a chance and trust by team management to regain his spot in the Indian Test team. He has the technique and game to score runs against the England attack and give India a good option at no.6.

Ravindra Jadeja for R Ashwin

R Ashwin has struggled to pick wickets overseas and it is something that puts an asterisk on his brilliant career so far. It happened in South Africa earlier this year and after the first Test in Birmingham, where he picked 7 wickets, Ashwin has returned almost empty handed.

However, it hurt more when Moeen Ali, who was picked as the second spinner by England in the Southampton Test picked 9 wickets to bowl England to win and Ashwin returned with 3 wickets on the same pitch. Given that it seemed like Ashwin had not fully recovered from his hip injury and the after-effects were seen in his bowling.

While Ali got tremendous spin and bounce by pitching the ball in the bowler’s footmarks, Ashwin tended to push the ball faster and missed the footmarks by a big margin and was rendered ineffective with his inability to pivot properly at the crease.

If India wishes to gain something out of the last Test at the Kia Oval, India must replace Ashwin with Ravindra Jadeja. Jadeja has been the best bet for India when it comes to spin overseas. His ability to bowl very well on pitches which offer less to spinners has always come in handy. He bowls stump to stump and gets wickets by variation in speed.

His aggressive batting is a plus and India desperately needs runs from their tailenders to score some runs and Jadeja showed he could wield the bat effectively on the 2014 tour as well.