Expect fireworks as Bumrah-led India try to meet England's 'Baz-ball' revolution head-on

The Baz-ball revolution may be in its infancy, but it has already achieved something significant. Everyone is talking about England’s new game plan for storming Test cricket.

So much so, it has relegated all the usual headliners to mere footnotes. When England and India started their five-Test series last year, it felt like the latest instalment of the Virat Kohli v James Anderson saga.

Now, in the build up to the postponed fifth Test, which starts at Edgbaston on Friday, mentions of both have been fleeting.

Anderson will line up for the home team, in place of Jamie Overton, after overcoming the niggling injury that kept him out of England’s win over New Zealand at Headingley.

Run-shy Kohli will be bidding to end a run of 74 innings without an international hundred. He will not, this time, be burdened by the captaincy.

The fourth-Test win over England at The Oval last year was the last of Kohli’s tenure as India captain.

Even in times of need, he will not be called upon. India have handed the armband on to fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah after Rohit Sharma, the new permanent incumbent, failed to recover from Covid-19 in time to make the starting XI.

England's Harry Brook, Jonny Bairstow, head coach Brendon McCullum and Joe Root during a break from batting, during a nets session at Edgbaston Stadium, Birmingham, on Thursday, June 30, 2022, on the eve of the 5th Test against India, PA

KL Rahul, the opener who combined so well with Rohit to give India a 2-1 advantage in this series last summer, is also missing with a groin injury.

Both sides are changed vastly now. Just four of England’s starting XI from the fourth Test at the Oval last year have survived to play in the fifth – Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow and Anderson.