Southampton, July 11 (IANS) India have brought back Sanju Samson and Suryansh Shedge as India won the toss and elected to bowl first against England in the fifth and final T20I at The Rose Bowl on Saturday. The toss was delayed by 45 minutes due to the Indian team arriving late at the stadium after being stuck in traffic.

England have already won the series via an unassailable 3-0 lead, and another victory over India will help them seal a clean sweep victory, as well as become the new top-ranked team in men’s T20Is.

India, meanwhile, will look to salvage some pride and conclude a difficult T20I leg on a high before heading into the three-match ODI series against England, starting on July 14 in Birmingham.

After winning the toss, skipper Shreyas Iyer, who’s won every coin flip so far on this tour, said Samson and Shedge have replaced Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Washington Sundar in the playing eleven. “Today, based on the conditions, it’s windy, and we had a chat before, and they said the wicket won’t change that much, so we’ve elected to bowl first.

“I just want to give 100 per cent effort today, irrespective of the result. I just want them to have a solid state of mind where they go in and just try to get the best out of themselves, rather than sulking or being in a situation where they’re a bit ahead of the game. Be in the moment and just stop thinking about what’s happened and what could happen.”

England captain Harry Brook said left-arm spinner Liam Dawson has replaced leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed in their playing eleven. “We’d have had a bat, so we’re pretty happy. If we win today, we go to world No 1, so that’s at the back of our minds. But, as we’ve done all series, we want to adapt to the surface and communicate well.”

Playing XIs:

India: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer (captain), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Suryansh Shedge, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav, and Prasidh Krishna

England: Philip Salt, Jos Buttler (wk), Harry Brook (captain), Jacob Bethell, Tom Banton, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, and Josh Tongue

–IANS

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