After two thrilling Tests and one not so much, the five match series between India and England heads to Ranchi for the fourth Test starting this Friday from 3.00pm. As always, check out our preview and betting tips for the clash below.
India vs England 4th Test Betting Tips
Ranchi, Friday 23rd February, 3.00pm (AEDT)
After a competitive two Tests to open up the series, the 3rd Test was a whitewash in favour of the home nation, winning by a record 434 runs to take a 2-1 lead in the series. India captured the win despite a serious shortage of regular stars, with Virat Kohli and KL Rahul both missing as well as Ravi Ashwin taking leave during the game and Ravi Jadeja on a short recovery from a hamstring injury.
India
The Indians are full of confidence heading into the fourth Test. So much so that they will be resting star paceman Jasprit Bumrah, who is the leading wicket taker in the series with 17 wickets at an average of 13.6. The only seam up option that the Indians have as cover is Mukesh Kumar, so he will likely get the nod unless they decide to go with a fourth spinner alongside Jadeja, Ashwin and Yadav.
Ravi Jadeja moved up to No.5 in the batting order for the 3rd Test after Shreyas Iyer was dropped and scored a brilliant hundred in the first innings. With that inclusion, the Indian top six are in some special form, with four batsmen having scored hundreds in the last two Tests. With Kohli and Rahul still unavailable, the order should remain the same.
Indian Predicted XI: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Ravindra Jadeja, Sarfraz Khan, Druv Jurel, Ravi Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, Mohammed Siraj
England
Where does England go from here? After a loss that bad, you have to think some changes will be coming to the line-up for this fourth Test. Looking down their batting line-up, the one player that sticks out like a sore thumb is Jonny Bairstow. The No.5 has scored just 102 runs in this series at an average of 17.0.
Luckily we don’t have to speculate much when it comes to England, as is their tradition of naming their playing XI a few days out from the game. They have decided to stick with the out of form Bairstow, making just two changes to their bowling unit with spinner Bashit and seamer Robinson coming in at the expense of Rehan Ahmed and Mark Wood.
England Predicted XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Ben Foakes, Tom Hartley, Ollie Robinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jimmy Anderson
Betting Tips
I thought England had some fight in them prior to the 3rd Test, and they came out guns blazing in that first session. Unfortunately their competitiveness dried up very quickly after that. IT’s hard to see them bouncing back after such a defeat, but that’s the beauty of BazBall isn’t it? England can look completely down and out of a series then one or two sessions of brilliance from the likes of Ben Stokes can completely flip a game.
Unfortunately, I think the Indian batsman have hit their stride in this series now and that difference in form is a massive gap to close. Such is their dominance that you just have to think one of their top six is going to score a big hundred every time the Indians bat. Hard to bet against that with the elite spinning trio backing them up.
