India vs England 5th Test, Day 1 weather update: Rain likely to play SPOILSPORT on opening day in Birmingham

India and England will lock horns at Birmingham’s Edgbaston Stadium from 1 July. However, there is a piece of bad news for the fans as there a predictions of rain on Day 1 of the fifth Test match.

File image (Source: Twitter)

Last September, India were on the verge of playing the fifth and final Test of the Pataudi Trophy against England in Manchester. But the fears of a Covid-19 outbreak in the visitors' camp meant that the finale of the series was rescheduled to Edgbaston in Birmingham for July 1-5 in 2022.

Notably, Team India is leading the series 2-1 and is on the verge of recording a series win in England after 2007.

Both teams will lock horns at Birmingham’s Edgbaston Stadium from 1 July onwards at 3:30 PM IST for a five-day action of red-ball cricket. However, there is a piece of bad news for the fans as there a predictions of rain on Day 1 of the match.

The weather at the Edgbaston Stadium in Birmingham could see the first two sessions experience light showers on Friday. However, the sky may get clear after the lunch break. The temperature may hover between 10-19 degrees Celsius on the day and the wind speed can go around 12 km/h.

Also, the weather forecasts have predicted rain to be on a shorter spell, with not much playing time to be wasted.

Notably, English summer is often interrupted by rain at this time of the year and the weather in the country is highly unpredictable.

Meanwhile, on the eve of the match, Jasprit Bumrah was announced as India's 36th Test captain, the first time India will have a fast bowling captain since the legendary Kapil Dev in 1987. Coincidentally, Edgbaston Test will be Bumrah's first-ever leadership stint in competitive cricket.

"It's a huge honour to lead #TeamIndia."@Jaspritbumrah93 sums up his emotions as he is all set to captain the side in the 5⃣th rescheduled Test against England. #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/jovSLbuN7e — BCCI (@BCCI) July 1, 2022

Rohit Sharma is the new all-format captain of Team India but missed out on Edgbaston Test due to Covid-19.

On the other hand, England boasts of a new set-up in Ben Stokes as captain, Brendon McCullum as a head coach and Rob Key as managing director of men's cricket.

Squads

England Playing XI: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (captain), Sam Billings (wicketkeeper), Matthew Potts, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach and James Anderson

India: Jasprit Bumrah (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain) (wicketkeeper), KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Prasidh Krishna and Mayank Agarwal