After clinching the ODI series against India, England will be persisting with Ben Stokes for the first Test match against India at Edgbaston. Stokes was charged by prosecutors back in January following an incident outside a Bristol nightclub in September last year. He has since pleaded not guilty to the charge, with his trial set to start on August 6 the day after the scheduled August 1-5 first Test at Birmingham's Edgbaston ground is due to end. Given his trial can last between 5 to 7 days, Stokes might miss the second Test starting at Lord's from August 9. 

"We are going to pick our best team and make sure we go into that series with the strongest squad," Root said.

"If Ben's fit to play, he'll be up for selection. He loves playing cricket, he loves being out there -- you can see when he's on a cricket field he's fully engaged with what's going on.

"He wants the ball all the time. He wants to be involved in what's happening and I'm sure that will be exactly the same throughout that game."

Speaking of Joe  Root, the England Test skipper has found form just at the right time for his team. He notched up back to back centuries in the second and third ODIs against India and played a pivotal role in taking his team to victory. 

Root, however, was far from satisfied, saying: "It's not a big thing, I don't think.

"It's obviously nice but I feel I've got a lot more to give this ODI team for hopefully a long time. Hopefully, there's quite a few more (hundreds) left" Root concluded. 

His latest hundred saw Root become England's outright most prolific century-maker in ODI cricket, with 13 hundreds from 110 innings at this level, surpassing by one the record he had shared previously with Marcus Trescothick.

(Inputs from AFP)