India’s poor toss record continued to haunt them on Day 1 of the fourth Test against England at Old Trafford in Manchester as they lost their 14 successive toss in international cricket. Captain Shubman Gill once again failed to call it correctly for the fourth consecutive time in the series as England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and opted to bowl first under overcast conditions.
Hence, India’s toss win drought continued as the coin last fell in their favour back in January 2025 during the third T20I against England in Rajkot. From then onwards, they went on to lose the toss in the last two T20Is, the following three-match ODI series and during their entire victorious campaign of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
India already recorded the most successive toss losses in international cricket during the third Test against England at Lord’s, breaking West Indies’ record of 12 from 1999, and now have extended it to 14 in Manchester. According to Wisden, such an occurrence has one in 16,384, or 0.000061 per cent chance of happening.
Meanwhile, India made three changes to their playing XI after injuries to Akash Deep and Nitish Kumar Reddy. Anshul Kamboj was handed his international debut as he filled in place of Akash Deep, while Shardul Thakur came in place of Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Apart from them, Karun Nair was dropped after his poor run in the first three matches and has been replaced by Sai Sudharsan. On the other hand, England brought in Liam Dawson in place of Shoaib Bashir.
India’s Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Anshul Kamboj, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
England Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Liam Dawson, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer
– Ends