Alastair Cook has confirmed Keaton Jennings will start for England and open the batting in the fourth Test with India.
England's skipper confirmed at his pre-match press conference at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai that the Durham opener would slot straight into the side as a replacement for Haseeb Hameed.
The 19-year-old has had surgery on a finger injury picked up in the last Test in Mohali, prompting a call-up for Jennings from the England Lions squad in the United Arab Emirates.
Jennings will be Cook's 11th opening partner since the retirement of Andrew Strauss and comes into the side on the back of a stellar Specsavers County Championship season for Durham in which he scored 1,548 runs, including seven hundreds.
"He's going to play and open the batting," Cook said when asked about the 24-year-old left hander.
"It's another great opportunity for a guy to come in and play. He's in good touch, been spending a bit of time in the middle for Lions, scoring a hundred, so it's a very special day for him.
"It's pretty similar probably to what happened to me 10 years ago, flying 48 hours before the game. I'd never met him properly so it's probably been quite daunting I suppose in one sense but I think having Stokesy around certainly helps.
"He seems a really good guy, he's got a great head on his shoulders and mentally I think he's a very strong player so I wish him all the best."
Cook confirmed that Stuart Broad was 50/50 to play as he bids to regain full fitness after a foot injury and said the England's starting XI would be finalised over the next 12 hours. The guys do feel reenergised (after a break). It gives them a bit of a change of scenery. We had five days off in a long tour, mentally and physically, and I think it’s done the players a world of good
The squad reconvened in Mumbai after five days off from a schedule that has saw them play three back-to-back Test matches in November.
Some of the squad, Cook included, went to Dubai for a long weekend.
"The guys do feel reenergised, it gives them a bit of a change of scenery." he said. "We had five days off in a long tour, mentally and physically, and I think it’s done the players a world of good.
"People in the media or people at home will only judge it on how well we play but I’m not sure sitting around not doing very much for four days would have done us any good."
The captain also reflected on the remarkable year Jonny Bairstow has had. The Yorkshire star has surpassed Andy Flower's record for Test runs in a calendar year by a wicketkeeper (1,045), and dismissals, breaking Ian Healy's long-held mark of 67. Bairstow is now within sight of the 1,481 Test runs scored by Michael Vaughan in 2002. Standing on 1,355, the 27-year-old has potentially four more innings to do it.
"It’s an outstanding achievement," Cook said of Bairstow's twin milestones. "I think since he made his breakthrough hundred in South Africa it gave him that confidence he could play at this level. He’s always had the talent. The first time I properly saw him was at Scarborough playing for Essex and he got 60-odd. I was really impressed - he timed the ball beautifully, we couldn’t stop him scoring.
"Obviously he had a bit of introduction to international cricket and went away and worked really hard at his game. I think he’s come back a better player and a player who’s more comfortable in his own skin and understands his game better. You line that up with a bit of confidence in knowing that you can play at this level and it’s all coming to a good place.
"I suppose the most surprising thing for me is how consistent he’s been and that’s a credit to how hard you’re working - you generally have to work hard and your preparation has to be spot on. And to mirror that with the gloves - he should take a lot of credit."
Cook also said England were determined to get back to the intent they showed in the first Test in Rajkot, when they pushed India close.
"As part of the leadership group we sat down at the end of Mohali game and discussed how we wanted to play and what we felt had happened from our first game where we scored at three-and-a-half runs an over and played really well," he explained.
"We do have to take that second innings in Vizag out of it when we played that way but I wonder if that did tie into the third game a bit, if it was a bit of a hangover and we went back into our shells a little bit.
"After chatting it was a clear message that we wanted to play a bit more aggressively - Trevor likes that. Rajkot was the blueprint - we played really well there and we might have just slipped off in terms of that intent. Hopefully we can go back to that level."