The Indian team management never falls short of springing surprises. When it was believed that Ravichandran Ashwin’s selection for the fourth Test at The Oval was a formality, the think-tank yet again decided to keep the off-spinner out of the playing XI.

The Oval is known to assist the spinners and most former players thought that the wicket will behave in a similar fashion in this Test too.

Captain Virat Kohli, however, tried to justify choosing Ravindra Jadeja over Ashwin. “It’s something that we thought is a good match-up for Jadeja as well, because mostly all our seamers bowl over the wicket. It’s a nice little spot for the left-handers as well.

“I think according to the match-ups, it fits perfectly for our team... plus the balance he is giving us with the bat currently,” Kohli said at the toss.

England have four left-handed batsmen in their side and Kohli thinks Jadeja can use those roughs successfully with his left-arm spin. His record in the series — two wickets from his 76 overs — has hardly been encouraging though.

Jadeja is also considered a reliable batsman. But Ashwin has a first-class average of nearly 32 in England — 814 runs with three half-centuries in 32 innings. Jadeja, on the other hand, has 566 runs at an average of 31.44 in 19 innings with five fifties.

It was learnt that head coach Ravi Shastri informed Ashwin about his exclusion.

“Stubborn,” was Shane Warne’s assessment during commentary. “I would have played Ashwin.”

Take your pick

Ashwin

⚫ Tests 79 ⚫ Total wkts 413

⚫ Vs Right-hand batsmen: 202 wkts (Avg. 21.82)

⚫ Vs Left-hand batsmen: 211 wkts (Avg. 21.88)

Jadeja

⚫ Tests 56 ⚫ Total wkts 223

⚫ Vs Right-hand batsmen: 149 (Avg. 21.98)

⚫ Vs Left-hand batsmen: 74 (Avg. 25.89)

Stat-o-sphere

⚫ Virat Kohli became the seventh batsman, and the quickest (490 inns), in international cricket to cross the landmark of 23,000 or more runs (all formats combined)

⚫ The last time Kohli made back-to-back 50-plus Test scores was in August 2019, when he made 51 (in North Sound) and 76 (in Kingston)

⚫ James Anderson has now dismissed Cheteshwar Pujara the most number of times — 11 — in Test cricket

⚫ Before Ravindra Jadeja batted at No. 5 on Thursday, the last time an Indian left-handed batsman batted at that position on Day I of a Test was Sourav Ganguly (35) in Colombo (PSS) on August 8, 2008

⚫ Shardul Thakur’s fifty off 31 balls was the 2nd fastest by an Indian in Tests (after Kapil Dev’s fifty off 30 balls vs Pak in Karachi in 1982-83) and the fastest by any batsman in England