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India National Cricket Team vs England National Cricket Team 5th Test: England stand-in captain Ollie Pope won the toss and opted to bowl first against India in the fifth and final test of the series at The Oval on Thursday.

The hosts lead the series 2-1, while India are aiming to draw level.

Heading into the match, India have rested Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur and Jasprit Bumrah and brought in Karun Nair, Prasidh Krishna and Dhruv Jurel.

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India have obtained a boost with the return of pacer Akash Deep, who replaced Anshul Kamboj in the Playing XI after missing the Manchester Test due to a groin injury. Meanwhile, India fortified its batting lineup with the inclusion of Karun Nair, who replaced Shardul Thakur in the playing XI. 

Meanwhile, Gill has lost all five tosses in this Test series, and this is the 15th straight toss failure for the Indian men’s team in International cricket.

Talking at the time of toss, Pope said, "We'll bowl. Bit overcast, no-brainer to have a bowl on this pitch. Lost the captain but the others are tracking nicely, we've got a few fresh faces as well. We bat deep, Gus Atkinson and Overton have got runs. We're not going to contend with 2:2, we want to go out there and win it."

India captain Shubman Gill said, "Don't mind losing the toss as long as we win the game. I was a bit confused yesterday about what to do. Was a bit overcast, but the wicket looks good. We'll look to post good runs in the first innings. It should be a good pitch for the bowlers. We've got three changes. Dhruv Jurel, Karun Nair and Prasidh Krishna in for Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur and Jasprit Bumrah. We look for a win every game we play, we've come close and it's about that 5-10% extra push, boys will be giving it their all."

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India vs England Playing XIs

India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel(w), Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj.

England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope(c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton, Josh Tongue.

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