England include Woakes, Pope in squad for final India test

Pope was dropped from the side for the fourth test in favour of spin bowler Moeen Ali, who produced a match-winning performance to lead England to victory and an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series.

(Reuters)

Pope will play for Surrey in the first two days of their County Championship match at Essex before joining the England squad at The Oval for the test match which starts on Friday.

Cook announced his retirement from international cricket on Monday and will play his 161st test, opening the batting with Keaton Jennings who was retained in the squad despite scoring only 130 runs in the series.

Woakes missed the last test in Southampton due to injury.

England squad: Joe Root (captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Alastair Cook, Sam Curran, Keaton Jennings, Ollie Pope, Ben Stokes, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)