Shubman Gill's string of bad luck with the coin continued, as he lost the toss once again — making it five toss losses in as many matches this Test series. In IND vs ENG 5th Test at The Oval, England have won the toss and they invited India to bat first. 

Remarkably, this marks the 15th consecutive toss defeat for the Indian men’s team across formats in international cricket. On the flip side, this is the first time in the series that England’s Ollie Pope, standing in as captain, has won the toss.

For the seventh Test in a row at The Oval, the toss-winning side has chosen to bowl first.

Bad luck, Shubman!

This scenario also marks just the 14th time in Test history that a team (this time India) has lost all five tosses in a five-match series.

Notably, only once in the 21st century has this occurred before — when India toured England in 2018. Of the previous 13 such series, three ended in draws, and only once did the team on the wrong side of every toss manage to clinch the series — England, during the historic 1953 Ashes on home soil.

India have made four changes to their playing XI: Akash Deep replaces Anshul Kamboj, while Dhruv Jurel, Karun Nair, and Prasidh Krishna come in for Rishabh Pant, Shardul Thakur, and Jasprit Bumrah.

India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel(w), Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj.

England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope(c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton, Josh Tongue.