Madness, non-selection of Ashwin has to be greatest non-selection in UK: Vaughan

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan on Thursday termed the non-selection of off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin in the Indian lineup as “madness”.

“The non selection of @ashwinravi99 has to be greatest NON selection we have ever witnessed across 4 Tests in the UK !!! 413 Test wickets & 5 Test 100s !!!! #ENGvIND Madness,” tweeted Vaughan. Ashwin has not featured in any of the four Tests against England so far and his omission has been a huge debating point across cricket fraternity.

England skipper Joe Root won the toss and decided to bowl first against India in the fourth Test at The Oval on Thursday. Speaking at the toss, Root said: “We’re going to bowl first. Going to make use of the overhead conditions. Looks like a good morning for bowling, we need to still hit the right lines and lengths, like we did at Headingley. We’ve got two changes — Ollie Pope in for Jos Buttler and Chris Woakes comes in for Sam Curran. Chris (Woakes) knows his body well and we all know about his performances. (On being the top-ranked batter) It does feel nice but obviously has no standing on this game.”

India skipper Virat Kohli said: “We would have bowled first as well but toss isn’t something you can control. Need to be prepared for either. We’re looking forward to putting runs on the board. Two changes — Ishant and Shami have niggles — Umesh and Shardul are back. For us, it’s about partnerships, we can’t focus too much on individuals. The opening partnerships have been good, it’s about getting more partnerships. We got a few days left on this tour, the series is poised nicely and there is going to be no shortage of effort from our side.”

Playing XI: England: Rory Burns, Haseeb Hameed, Dawid Malan, Joe Root(c), Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow(w), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Craig Overton, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson.

India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.