England announces playing XI for the fourth Test vs India

England have announced their playing XI for the fourth Test with one important change to the set-up for the crucial game, starting on Wednesday, July 13, at Old Trafford in Manchester. Notably, England is leading the five-match Test 2-1 with two more games to go.

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Interestingly, the English think tank team has decided to include the veteran spin bowling all-rounder Liam Dawson in the place of Shoaib Bashir, who has been ruled out of the five-match series with a finger injury.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, English middle-order batter Harry Brook has stated that Dawson can spice things up by bowling interesting lines and lengths in order to create wicket-taking opportunities. 

"He's a wily old fox, very experienced. He's a very skillful cricketer as well. He's played everywhere, played against everyone. Hopefully he can land it in the foot-holes and create a bit of spice out of there and some opportunities to take wickets,” Brook said.

"He's obviously a very good batter as well, he's got nearly 20 First-Class hundreds. That's adding to our strength in batting. He's a good bloke, he's willing to always fight for the team. He's very competitive, and it's good to have him here," he added.

It’s important to note that Dawson is set for the Test comeback after the gap of eight long years, having played his last Test against South Africa in July 2017 in Nottingham. Delving into the details of his Test numbers, he has played three Tests, scoring 84 runs and pocketing seven wickets.

In first-class cricket, Dawson has played a whopping 212 games, amassing 10731 runs at an average of 35.29 with 18 centuries and 56 half-centuries. Additionally, he has scalped 371 wickets at an average of 31.54 with the best bowling figures of 12/130.

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England’s playing XI for the fourth Test vs India:Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, ⁠Ollie Pope, ⁠Joe Root, ⁠Harry Brook,⁠ ⁠Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), ⁠Liam Dawson, ⁠Chris Woakes, ⁠Brydon Carse, ⁠Jofra Archer

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