India aiming to keep Test series alive

Nottingham: A desperate Virat Kohli-led Indian team will be hungry to keep themselves alive in the five-match Test cricket series against hosts England when they square-off in the third Test at the Trent Bridge starting here on Saturday.

England have recalled Ben Stokes to playing XI for the third Test against India at Trent Bridge, captain Joe Root announced on Friday.

All-rounder Stokes was added to England's 13-man squad on Tuesday, just hours after being acquitted on a charge of affray at Bristol Crown Court.

Stokes replaces left-arm swing bowler Sam Curran, England's man-of-the-match in their 31-run win in the first Test at Edgbaston earlier this month.

Stokes missed England's innings and 159-run win in the second Test at Lord's last week because of a clash of dates with his trial after playing in the series-opener.

England lead the five-match series 2-0 and victory in the third Test, which starts on Saturday, will see them retain the Pataudi Trophy.

After losing the first two matches, the visitors face a must-win situation. India gave a very good fight before losing the first Test by 31 runs in Birmingham. In the second Test, they were outplayed by an innings and 159 runs at Lord's, succumbing within three days.

India's playing eleven is likely to witness few changes with Delhi wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant all set to make his Test debut replacing Dinesh Karthik,

Coming to the bowling department, with pacer Jasprit Bumrah having fully recovered from a finger injury and coach Ravi Shastri admitting his side should have dropped chinaman spinner Kuldeep Yadav at Lord's,

Teams

England XI: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (capt), Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

India (from): Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur

Pitch and condition:
A maximum temperature of 24 degrees and a minimum of 16 degrees is expected on the first day with mild chances of rain on the second. The pitch at Trent Bridge is also expected to assist the seamers like it has been the case throughout the series.

Stats and trivia

• Broad needs 12 runs to become only the fifth man in the 400-wicket club to also have scored 3000 runs after Shane Warne, Kapil Dev, Shaun Pollock and Richard Hadlee.
• Ishant Sharma is five short of 250 wickets.

Match facts
18-22 August, 2018
Start time 11:00 local (10:00 GMT)