A lot of changes in the playing XI in the middle of the Kissa series, many reminiscent of the Indo-England series

By the way, this is not the first time. Earlier on 5 occasions, between the series, both teams made four changes:

1. Australia and India in November 1956

2. England and Pakistan in July 1962

3. England and West Indies in July 1976

4. Pakistan and Sri Lanka in March 1982

5. Pakistan and Sri Lanka in July 2015

There are also occasions when more than four changes were made in the team:

*1994-95 Series in Australia: Australia made 4 and Pakistan made 5 changes.

*1959 Series in England: England made 6 changes and India made 5 changes for the third Test.

* The record was made in July 2002 when in the team for the second Test of the 2 Test series in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka made 7 and Bangladesh made 5 changes.

Here, it is necessary to mention the series of 1884-85 in this context. Then Australia had changed all 11 players due to the match fee controversy. This happened for the second Test in Melbourne and then England did not make any changes in the team. In this way, the count of total changes was 11. Australia continued the process of change even further. Sydney made 7 changes for the next Test (three players returned by ending the match fee quarrel +4 new players). Australia used a total of 26 different players in the first three Tests of this series.

Now return to the Oval Test and note the changes made in it:

England: Out: Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, Bridan Cars; In: Jacob Bethel, Gas Atkinson, Jamie Overton, Josh Tung.

India: Out: Rishabh Pant, Jaspreet Bumrah, Anshul Kamboj, Shardul Thakur; In: Dhruv Jurael, Akashdeep, famous Krishna, Karun Nair.

Incidentally, when captain Shubman Gill talked about the change in the team during the toss, he spoke only about three changes and instead of combos

Akashdeep forgot to play.

By the way, the story of the Indo-England series in England of 1959 is amazing. There were 17 players in the tour team of India, while in the middle of the series, Abbas Ali Baig was replaced by Vijay Manjrekar. In this way, the team became a total of 18 players: Dutta Gaikwad (Captain), Pankaj Roy (Vice-Qetan), Arvind Apte, Abbas Ali Baig, Chandu Borde, Nari Contractor, Ramakant Desai, Jayasinharao Ghorpade, Subhash Gupta, ML Jayasimha, Nana Joshi (wicketkeeper), AG Kripal Singh, AG Kripal Singh, Vijay Manjrekar, VM Mudaiya, Bapu Nadanirani, Surendranath, Naren Tamhane (wicketkeeper) and Poly Umrigar. Of these, 17 players played in Tests in the series and only Mudaiya did not get a chance.

Connected with this team, there is a very shocking, one more fact. The team’s manager Fatehsimha Rao was Gaikwad (Maharaja of Baroda) who was playing cricket for Baroda himself and was only 29 years old. Many players of the tour team were older than him. This fact is also an indication of what kind of qualification was given in India, making a team manager then.

When England won the third Test of the series in Leeds, there was more than two days left. England was a better team in every part of the game. One of the most special things of this Test was that 11 players from both the teams played in the second Test had changed:

England: In: Parkhouse, Puller, Close, Mortimmer, Sweetman and Rhodes. Of these, Puller and H Rhodes debuted; Out: Milton, Taylor, Horton, Greenhoff, Evans and Statham.

India: Arvind Apte, Dutta Gaikwad, Chandu Borde, Bapu Nadakarni and Naren Tamhane. Of these, Apte made his debut. Out: Nari Contractor, Vijay Manjrekar, AG Kripal Singh, ML Jaisimha and Nana Joshi.

Some interesting facts related to the players who played in the Test:

*This was the 52nd consecutive Test of Peter Me and equaled the world record of FE Woly.

*The new Test cricketer Rhodes made a brilliant start and took wickets on his fourth and twelfth balls and dismissed Roy and Borde.

*Switman took 5 catches in the match and did excellent wicketkeeping- not a single bye run.

*This was the first Test of Gilbert Parkhouse after about 9 years and added 146 runs in the first innings in three and a half hours (England’s best opening partnership in 26 Tests).