London: England head into Thursday’s fourth Test against a resurgent India at Southampton facing several awkward questions.
Jonny Bairstow was selected to play as a specialist batsman even though he fractured a finger while keeping wicket in the third-Test loss.
England also recalled Sam Curran, who featured in the first two Tests against India and Moeen Ali in the team announced on Wednesday.
Jos Buttler will take over as wicketkeeper for the Test at the Ageas Bowl after Bairstow fractured the middle finger of his left hand last week.
“It’s a lot to ask Jonny to do it with a broken finger, he’s fit to bat,” captain Joe Root told reporters. “We have to do the best thing for this team to win the game.
“There are no guarantees in international sport. We’ve bounced back from difficult defeats before and that’s the challenge for us to do it again here.”
Surrey seamer Curran replaces Chris Woakes, who missed training on Tuesday after feeling tightness in his right quad.
Ali, who is expected to contribute with bat and ball, has been recalled in place of Ollie Pope in the line-up.
The risk in fielding an injured player was highlighted by India’s Mohammad Shami, who said Bairstow would be targeted if he batted at Southampton.
“When you see that a batsman has a weakness and he feels uncomfortable in some way, you’d prefer to work on that aspect,” said the paceman. “We will definitely look at that.”
An innings of 219 and figures of eight for 89 against Yorkshire had put Ali’s name back in the frame for a match on a ground where he took six for 67 against India during England’s 266-run win in the corresponding Test four years ago.
That same Test also saw Alastair Cook end a run of low scores with an innings of 95 and England would be delighted if their all-time leading Test run-scorer put another bad trot behind him in similar fashion this week.
Meanwhile, James Anderson is on the verge of becoming the most successful pace bowler in the history of Test cricket.
Anderson has an England-record 557 wickets in Tests and is now just six shy of retired Australia great Glenn McGrath’s tally of 563 — the most taken by any paceman at this level.
“We’ve been able to learn a great deal from Anderson,” said Shami. “So far, what I’ve learnt from Anderson is this: the stricter and the more accurate you are, the better it is.”
India have yet to field the same side for two consecutive Tests under Virat Kohli’s captaincy.
But that could change following a dominant display in Nottingham where, for the second match of the series, Kohli scored exactly 200 runs, including a century, having achieved the same feat in the first Test at Edgbaston.
Victory kept alive India’s hopes of coming from 2-0 down to win a five-match series, something achieved just once in Test history, by a Don Bradman-inspired Australia against England in 1936/37.
