England won the toss at the Oval and chose to bowl first.
Team India's dismal luck with the toss continued ahead of the fifth and final Test against England in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy on Thursday, July 31, at The Oval in London. The toss was initially delayed owing to this morning's rain and a damp field.
Ollie Pope, England's captain in this match, tossed the coin, which landed on the ground in his favor. Pope won the toss and decided to bowl first.
The Men in Blue lost their 15th consecutive toss in men’s international cricket, as Shubman Gill lost the toss for the fifth Test. This is a streak so rare, the odds of it happening are 1 in 32,768.
Shubman Gill finished the five-match series without winning a single toss. Since taking over as India’s Test captain, Gill is yet to win a toss.
This is the 14th time in Test history that a team has lost all five tosses in a five-match series. The only other occasion it occurred in the twenty-first century was during India's visit to England in 2018. Only three of the previous 13 such series were drawn, and only one team won while losing all tosses: England in the 1953 Ashes at home.
Suryakumar Yadav was the last Indian captain to win the toss in the third Twenty20 International against England. Following that match, no Indian captain has won a toss across formats. India lost all five tosses in the white-ball series against England in January-February, as well as all five in the 2025 Champions Trophy.
Shubman Gill stated that he doesn't mind losing the toss during the toss held during the last Test. Given the cloudy weather, Gill acknowledged that he wasn't sure what choice he would have made if he had won the toss. He did, however, expect that India could get a high first-innings total.
"Don't mind losing the toss as long as we win the game. Was a bit confused yesterday about what to do; it was a bit overcast, but the wicket looks good. We'll look to post good runs in the first innings. Should be a good pitch for the bowlers. We've got three changes. Jurel, Karun, and Prasidh in for Pant, Shardul, and Bumrah. We look for a win every game we play, we've come close, and it's about that 5-10% extra push, boys will be giving it their all," Gill said at the toss.
Despite Gill's initial suggestion of only three changes, India made four changes to their team. He neglected to note that Akash Deep also replaced Anshul Kamboj when he cited Dhruv Jurel, Karun Nair, and Prasidh Krishna as inclusions.
Meanwhile, the home team has also made four changes. Ben Stokes is missing due to a right shoulder injury. Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, and Josh Tongue have replaced Brydon Carse, Liam Dawson, and Jofra Archer.
India playing XI:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (C), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj
England playing XI:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (C), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton, Josh Tongue