Ahead of the fifth Test at Dharamsala, the England management took some time off to visit the Dalai Lama, the highest spiritual leader and head of Tibet at his residence, on Wednesday.
Gus Atkinson, Jonathan Bairstow, Zak Crawley, Tom Hartley, Dan Lawrence, and Ollie Pope were the six England players who had visited the spiritual leader at McLeod Ganj.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama granted an audience to England Test Cricketers at his residence in Dharamshala, HP, India on 6 March 2024.England team will play against India team at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamshala from 7th-11th March 2024. pic.twitter.com/f54QZKRoLq
— Tibet.Net (@CTA_TibetdotNet) March 6, 2024
England will prepare themselves to take on India in the final match of the five-match affair and the visitors will look to end on a positive despite already losing the series.
Ben Stokes’s side has been able to put up a decent fight against the dominant hosts, but ultimately fell short in the crucial moments. They began the series with an important win at Hyderabad thanks to the brilliant knock by Ollie Pope who scored 196 off 278 deliveries.
Rohit Sharma’s side, however, managed to bounce back strongly with wins in the following three tests which gave them the series and to maintain their undefeated series record at home which began in 2012.
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The upcoming fixture will be a momentous occasion for both Ravichandran Ashwin and Jonny Bairstow as both players will be playing their 100th Test at Dharamsala.
Ashwin has been a pivotal part of India’s success in the longest format and has put his name among the greats of the game after breaching the 500 Test wickets milestone in quick time.
Bairstow on the other hand will be coming under pressure after not being able to make much of an impact in the series. The batter will be aiming to finish off on a strong note and shutting down any reasons for dropping the experienced all-format batter.
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England have already announced their playing eleven and have made just one change with Ollie Robinson making way for the return of the express pacer, Mark Wood. The side has also chosen to play two spinners with Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley retaining their spots. Robinson had played the previous Test in Ranchi but suffered a back strain when batting which rendered him unable to bowl in the second innings.
England XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (C), Ben Foakes (wk), Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, James Anderson, Shoaib Bashir.
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