IND vs ENG: Does Ben Stokes' absence gives India a chance in fifth Test? Shubman Gill says ‘definitely a loss for them’

India need to win the fifth and final Test against England to come away with a drawn series, trailing 2-1 after four games. It has been a hard-fought and tightly contested series, but heading into the Oval match, India might fancy their chances slightly more. That’s because England will be without their captain and talisman Ben Stokes, who was ruled out of the match.

England will miss Stokes’ dynamic captaincy, his game-changing fielding, and his competent batting. But most of all, they will miss Stokes’s bowling. He has been the best bowler on show in the first four games, and has 17 wickets so far, the most across either team.

Alongside Stokes, England will also be without Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse and Liam Dawson. While that gives the home team’s attack a more raw look, India captain Shubman Gill cautioned against taking them lightly.

“Big miss definitely for England,” Gill said about Stokes' absence. “Whenever he comes on to bowl or bat, he always makes things interesting. He always makes something happen. From their perspective, it’s definitely a loss for them. Having said that, the players who come in to play for the country are as competitive and bring as much to the table as any other player.”

“Yes they haven’t gone with a frontline spinner, but they have spinning options in Bethel and Root,” Gill said. “Luckily for us, Washington and Jadeja have done such a good job with the bat and with the ball, on their front, it’s a no-brainer for us.”

The composition of India’s attack has been under the lens from the start of the series, with the team seeming to prefer bowlers who add some batting depth, rather than wicket-taking only. With six bowling options too, one or two bowlers have always been under-bowled.

“It’s very difficult,” Gill conceded. “When you’re playing six bowlers, you know that one or two bowlers are definitely going to go under-bowled. In the last match, a lot of people also felt that Washington should have come in earlier (to bowl), which is a valid point - but sometimes when you’re out in the middle, you see with this ball when there are two spinners bowling early in the innings, it’s very hard to maintain the ball.

"And then the fast bowlers go out of the game for about eight to ten overs, because then again you need to maintain the ball. When you’re playing with six bowling options there would definitely be some opinions where one bowler will go under-bowled. But it’s better to have more bowling options, rather than not having them.”

“If you look at the kind of cricket we have played, sometimes the scorecard of the series doesn’t show that. Every match we have played, it was very difficult to decide which team is going to win after four days of cricket too. If we are able to do that for every match, coming outside of India with a relatively young team, it is going to be a big achievement for us if we are able to level the series.

“It has been a great learning curve for me. There are some things that you can only learn from experience. I’ve learned so much from these four matches.”