An injury-plagued India could be forced to depart from its preferred template when it takes on a reinvigorated England in the fourth Test starting here on Wednesday (July 23, 2025), hoping to end a winless record at the storied Old Trafford and draw level in what has been a compelling series so far. The high-octane five-match Test series between India and England—christened the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy—is poised to capture the imagination of cricket fans once again, with the fourth Test set to begin on July 23 at Old Trafford, Manchester.
With the series finely balanced, England lead 2–1, courtesy of victories at Headingley and Lord’s, while India responded with a thumping win at Edgbaston, marking their first-ever Test triumph at the iconic Birmingham venue.
ENG vs IND : Previous Performances
England won the first Test convincingly in Leeds by five wickets and had a bright start to the series. However, India bounced back in the following Edgbaston Test to level the series, courtesy of a marathon innings by skipper Shubman Gill. The third Test at the iconic Lord’s went down to the final session of the fifth day, with the hosts clinching a narrow 22-run win after both sides registered similar first-inning scores. Notably, England were docked two WTC points for their slow-over rate.
With the contest now moving to Manchester, this is a must-win match for India, who are eying a series win on English soil. Notably, England announced their playing XI two days before the Test match and have made one change, adding Liam Dawson to replace Shoaib Bashir, who was ruled out of the series owing to a fractured finger. Dawson, who last represented England in red-ball cricket was back in 2017, made a return after eight years.
Meanwhile, things are not great in the Indian contingent as they are suffering from a string of injuries. Nitish Kumar Reddy was ruled out of the series, citing a left knee injury. Meanwhile, Akash Deep is nursing an injury, and Arshdeep Singh, who was seen as his replacement, has been ruled out of this Test due to an impact injury to his left thumb while bowling in the nets at a training session in Beckenham.
BCCI has brought in Anshul Kamboj as a cover. Furthermore, Rishabh Pant, who was seen having trouble keeping wickets in the last Test, might play as a pure batter, and Dhruv Jurel might walk in as the keeper.
ENG vs IND : Head to Head in Tests
| Â Matches Played | Â Â Â Â Â Â 139 |
| England won | Â Â Â Â Â Â 53 |
| India won | Â Â Â Â Â Â 36 |
| Â Â Â Â Draw | Â Â Â Â Â Â 50 |
| Â First Meeting | 25th to 28th June, 1932 |
| Â Last Meeting | 10th to 14th July, 2025 |
ENG vs IND : Pitch and Weather Report
Old Trafford in Manchester is considered to be a pacer’s paradise. However, it has settled down over the years into a slower surface. In the ongoing series, the pitch looks similar to Edgbaston, with initial grass cover, trimmed before the match. Batters can expect some bounce for the first three days, making a decent score of around 340-350. Pacers may extract movement under overcast skies, especially with light rain predicted across the five days. However, as the Test progresses, spinners are expected to play an important role due to pitch deterioration.
Manchester tends to produce some of the quicker pitches in England. Batters who can cope with the pace find value for shots (though not everyone does) and bowlers might see the bounce and carry as reason to bend their backs even with a soft Dukes ball. The weather is likely to present a little bit of a problem with showers expected on the first and second days.
The average first innings score in the last 10 Test matches in Manchester has been 333 runs. In the last 17 matches here, the average fourth innings total at this venue has been a mere 168 runs. Hence, the team winning the toss might look to bat so as to avoid batting in the fourth innings. The teams batting first have won nine out of the previous 17 games here. The pacers have taken 57% of the wickets in the last 10 matches at this venue.
Light rain is forecast over the next five days and some disruptions are likely. The surface has seen big first-innings totals in County games earlier this season, though the last of those came in May. There’s been a lot of rain in the lead-up, and with overcast conditions expected, teams may prefer to bowl first, but it comes with a dilemma – no team winning the toss and bowling first has ever won an Old Trafford Test.
As per AccuWeather, the weather is expected to remain cloudy earlier on Day 1. The second session of the day, however, indicate over 50 percent chances of rainfall. There is a 40 to 50 percent chance of precipitation even on Day 2, and deteriorating weather forecasts might well result in the loss of overs. While Day 3 promises another rain-marred day, the weather is expected to ease out for play for the final two days of schedule.
ENG vs IND : Big Picture : India 2-2 or England 3-1 makes 4th Test interesting
Anything can happen. It is the central allure of sport. And this series keeps going out of its way to highlight it. There have been mountains of runs, mid-pitch feuds, men standing tall, men breaking down, history created left, right and centre, and heartbreak to last lifetimes. Manchester would do well to stock up on tissues and saw off everything but the edge of the couch.
Old Trafford was unusually quiet two days out from the Test. The air, grey and heavy, carried little of the usual match-week bustle, apart from the players, who at this point of the series, appeared to be operating on autopilot. Outside, in nearby Deansgate, preparations were in motion for Manchester Day, the city’s annual burst of parades and performance, set to unfold over the weekend. Inside, though, it was about restraint and restarts, as if both teams were still catching their breath eight days after the storm at Lord’s.
India will look back at so many moments. The run-out that needn’t have been. The backfoot defence that wasn’t quite. Small things. And now that they’ve had a little time to digest how big their impact was at Lord’s, there may be an understanding that being 1-2 down is a reality waiting to be reshaped. It is perhaps why they are pressing Jasprit Bumrah back into action. He’s known to have sweet-talked destiny before.
England have someone like that too and he’s had his four days’ bed rest. Ben Stokes ran himself into the ground last week. Watching him, his team-mates did the same. Jofra Archer didn’t care that he’d only bowled 18 overs in first-class cricket in four years of Test-match exile. He was ready to go from 0 to 90mph. Shoaib Bashir didn’t let minor details like a broken left hand keep him from answering his captain’s call. He was happy to bowl England to victory.
After the heat of the last Test – both literal and metaphorical – it fell to Rishabh Pant to lighten the mood when the teams crossed paths for the first time in Manchester. As India wrapped up training, England were just beginning theirs, with Ollie Pope trying to get himself padded up.
Walking along the boundary toward the team bus, the Indian vice-captain spotted a stray football. With a gentle swing of his boot, a technique perhaps refined after a recent trip to Manchester United’s Carrington training centre, Pant sent the ball skimming along the ground and struck Pope’s legs from about 20 yards out. As a startled Pope turned, Pant crouched down in a mock appeal for LBW, much to his own amusement.
Both these teams had much easier paths to victory open to them. Their flaws came in the way. Neither team is willing to let that define them. That’s why they are so good to watch. They aren’t perfect. But they are determined. With the series on the line and injuries forcing them to dig even deeper, there is every chance another spectacle awaits us at Old Trafford. Anything can happen. It is the central allure of sport. Because the people who are part of it just never give up.
But after the pause comes the push and Shubman Gill dialled the intensity right back up a day before the game when he invoked ‘spirit of cricket’ referring to England’s time-wasting tactics. The series has shifted back north, not just on the map, but in consequence.
The hosts are one win away from sealing the series. India can still win it – for the first time in England since 2007 – but must take both remaining Tests to do so. That’s no easy task for a side with just two wins from their last 11 Tests, a stretch defined by inconsistency and transition. But like the skies above Old Trafford, heavy and waiting, the tension hangs thick. The fourth chapter is about to unfold.
ENG vs IND : Vital Stats that matters
- India have come back from losing two Tests in a series only twice – against West Indies in 1974-75 and in Australia in 1977-78. Both times they went on to lose the decider.
- Only the brilliance of Don Bradman in 1936-37Â has stopped England from winning a Test series where they were up by two games.
- Joe Root goes into Manchester as the fifth-highest run scorer (13259) in Test cricket. By the time it ends, he could move to No. 2, above Ricky Ponting (13378)
- Shubman Gill came into this tour with 1893 Test runs. He’s added 607 to that which means he’s improved his career tally by over 30%.
- Dawson comes into this game on the back of excellent form in first-class cricket with 12 of his 15 five-wicket hauls, including three ten-wicket matches, coming since 2021.
- Sachin Tendulkar’s maiden Test century is the last individual hundred scored by an Indian at Old Trafford. India have played here just once in the last 30 years.
- Joe Root needs only 120 runs to go past Ricky Ponting’s run-tally and into second place in the all-time Test match run charts.
- Liam Dawson made his debut in the Chennai Test of 2016, the game in which Karun Nair hit 303
ENG vs IND : Team News for India and England
England :
England have already announced their XI with left-arm spinner Liam Dawson returning to Test cricket after an eight-year gap to take over as lead spinner from Bashir, who has been ruled out of the series. England have confirmed their XI, with Liam Dawson replacing the injured Shoaib Bashir in the only change from Lord’s. The 35-year-old Dawson, playing his first Test since 2017, adds left-arm orthodox variety to the attack and adds to the team’s batting depth with 18 first-class centuries to his name.
England Playing XI : Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Liam Dawson, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer
India :Â
The visitors have a few selection calls to make, but Jasprit Bumrah’s inclusion is not one of them, almost enforced by the series scoreline. One of them is the third seamer’s slot, which is up for grabs, after Akash Deep was ruled out with a groin injury. Gill confirmed that it will be a last-minute toss-up between Prasidh Krishna, who has featured twice this series, and Anshul Kamboj, a recent arrival in the UK.
With rain forecast through the Test, India will also weigh the need for a second spinner. And with Nitish Reddy set to make way for a specialist batter – potentially Sai Sudharsan – the bigger question might be whether they can afford to swap the all-round value of Washington Sundar at No. 8 for the seam-bowling heft of Shardul Thakur.
India Playing XI : Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar/Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna/Anshul Kamboj
ENG vs IND Fantasy XI : Rishabh Pant, Jamie Smith, Shubman Gill, Harry Brook, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Ben Stokes, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Brydon Carse, Chris Woakes
ENG vs IND : Players in the Spotlight : Zak Crawley and Rishabh Pant
Zak Crawley has hit a bit of an introspective phase in his career. The man who began an Ashes series by smacking its first ball for four is starting to appreciate a new way of doing things. His 128 runs in this series have come off 261 balls. He isn’t used to playing like this but fortifying their defence is an important pursuit for a batter in this format.
How does Crawley balance that growth with the pressure that is building on him from the outside? He played a significant part in England chasing down 371 in the first Test but right now his batting average for the series sits below even that of the bowler his team brings on as first change.
Rollercoasters ain’t got nothin’ on Rishabh Pant. The best of him at Headingly wasn’t enough to win the game for India. One well-meaning mistake in the first innings became a huge turning point at Lord’s.
He tried to make up for it in the second innings – even though his left hand was injured – but the pain was clearly too much. He struggled to keep hold of the bat, and this time it wasn’t the slightest bit funny. An eight-day gap between matches has allowed him to heal, which brings us squarely to the question: what’s in store for Pant at Old Trafford (besides taking penalties with Manchester United).
ENG vs IND : Match Prediction
While England will start out as favorites to win the impending Manchester Test and seal the series with a match to spare, Team India might well trump the hosts as the conditions are expected to favor spinners in the second half of the match. An injury-plagued India may need to adjust its strategy in the penultimate Test, aiming to end a winless streak at Old Trafford and level the series in what has been a compelling contest so far.
Also Read:Â ENG vs IND : Shubman Gill Appointed Test Skipper For Red Ball