England v India predictions and cricket betting tips: Root to lead by example

Free cricket tips, best bets and analysis for the fourth Test between England and India.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Cricket, 11am Thursday

Best bets

Joe Root man of the match
1pt 11-2 bet365

Joe Root to score 91 runs or more in the fourth Test
4pts 5-6 bet365

Ravichandran Ashwin top India first-innings wicket-taker
1pt 4-1 bet365

Team news

England
Jos Buttler is unavailable as he awaits the birth of his second child so Jonny Bairstow will keep wicket and Ollie Pope is likely to come in to the side. Chris Woakes could play his first Test in over a year in place of Sam Curran.

India
Fast bowler Prasidh Krishna has been called into the squad as cover. All-rounder Ravi Jadeja suffered a knee injury at Headingley and will be assessed. Ravi Ashwin could make his first appearance of the series.

Match preview

Even the most optimistic England fan couldn't have predicted that days after a dismal defeat at Lord's, the hosts would be ousting India for just 78 at Headingley and wrapping up victory in Leeds by the fourth morning.

India headed to the third Test buoyant and sensing blood. England's batting frailties had once again reared their ugly heads at HQ and an injury to Mark Wood had further depleted their fast-bowling stock.

But the shoe is firmly on the other foot heading to The Oval this week. England look the more settled unit and there are questions aplenty for India captain Virat Kohli to answer.

Having drawn level in Yorkshire, England are now favourites to win the series and 13-10 to seize the initiative in south London this week.

The omens are certainly good. India have won just once at The Oval in 13 Tests there with England handsome winners on each of the last three occasions. Alastair Cook brought down the curtain on his Test career with one final century in 2018, while the hosts were innings victors in 2014 & 2011.

Nine of the Indian side beaten at The Oval three years ago played at Leeds last week, while four years earlier it was a familiar face putting them to the sword.

A youthful Joe Root scored 149 not out in a huge England success seven years ago and the now-Three Lions captain, who also scored a century in the 2018 victory, is in the form of his life and chasing the record for the most runs in a calendar year.

The Yorkshireman has scored 1,398 runs in 2021 - 390 shy of the mark set by Pakistan's Mohammad Yousuf in 2006 - but still has potentially five matches still to come this year and has to be fancied to add to his yearly tally.

Root, who became the number-one ranked Test batsman in the world earlier this week, has top-scored in all of England's five innings during the series and while he is as even-money with some layers to do that in the hosts' first innings here, there are other ways to profit from the England captain's golden run of form.

Bet365 go 5-6 that Root scores more than 90 runs in the Test match, while he is 11-2 to be named man of the match. Both look worthwhile wagers given his form.

After a nine-wicket haul at Trent Bridge, England have played Indian attack leader Jasprit Bumrah pretty well in the preceding two matches so it may be therefore worth taking him in on in the top India first-innings bowler market.

Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has yet to feature but the tourists must surely be tempted to pick a player who has so often been England's tormentor-in-chief down the years.

Ashwin took seven wickets in his sole County Championship outing for Surrey at The Oval at the end of July and took 32 wickets in the sides' four-Test series in India in the winter.

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