Date, time, location, TV and streaming, squads, form, odds, weather and more ahead of the fourth meeting of the sides at the Kia Oval...
The fifth Test of the Men's Ashes between England and Australia.
Play is scheduled to begin at 11am BST on Thursday, July 27.
The match will be played at The Kia Oval.
After the Manchester rain brought a disappointing end to a brilliant fourth Test, Australia remain 2-1 up in the series with only one game to play. England produced their best performance of the series with an utterly dominant display in the first three days against Austria before the rain brought a halt to proceedings and the majority of the final two days were washed out.
This means that Australia have retained the Ashes having won the opening two Tests at Edgbaston and Lord's.
In an era when Test cricket has to repeatedly defend its worth against the juggernaut of franchise T20 competitions, this Ashes series has had everything that cricket lovers should value.
Each match has been tense, whether this be because of two evenly matched teams or a battle against impending weather, with the biggest margin of victory after four Tests being three wickets or 43 runs. There have been comeback stories with the maligned Zak Crawley scoring a brilliant 189 at Old Trafford and Jonny Bairstow answering his critics in typically angry fashion having hit a swashbuckling 99* and taken a brilliant catch to dismiss Mitch Marsh.
Harry Brook has enjoyed a positive first Ashes series [Getty Images]
Continuation of classic storylines with Broad continuing to dismiss David Warner while Steve Smith, despite being below his usual standard, still managed to hit a brilliant, match-winning Ashes century. The drama of a legal but controversial dismissal at Lords which brought the oft-contended 'spirit of cricket' debate back into the limelight. However, it could be argued that this brilliant series will end in a bit of a dead-rubber at the Kia Oval with Australia having already retained the Ashes by being 2-1 up with only one game to play.
However, expect another feisty affair as this seems not to be further from either captain's mind. Pat Cummins stated before the fourth Test that he wanted his side to win rather than retain the Ashes and one would imagine that his opinion has not changed despite the draw in Manchester.
England captain Ben Stokes had to field questions about whether he thought the tradition of retaining the Ashes should be scrapped. Although answering in typically diplomatic fashion he will want his side to level the series 2-2 as they did in 2019 and continue their record of having not lost a home Ashes series to Australia since 2001.
England have selected an unchanged squad for the fifth Test, with Stokes suggesting that selection of the XI will depend on fatigue.
England XI: Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
Australia squad: Pat Cummins, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner
Ranjan Madugalle is the match referee. The standing umpires are Joel Wilson and Kumar Dharmasena. Nitin Menon is on TV umpire duty, while David Millns is the fourth umpire.
After the weather robbed England of a victory charge and hogged the headlines in the wake of the fourth Test, with refreshed cries for reserve days to be put in place for test cricket in the event of rain delays and Joe Root questioning why a day's play has to end at 6.30pm when there remains enough light to play until much later, one might hope that the weather leaves the cricket to itself this weekend.
Unfortunately, the English summer is rarely so kind. Rain is forecast for some of day one, the morning of day two, the morning of day four and much of day five.
Australia have retained The Ashes [Getty Images]
England (11/8) will go into this match as slight favourites having played almost the perfect match against Australia at Old Trafford. Their batters looked in great form with Crawley hitting a blistering 189 to remind everyone of the talent that he clearly possesses and overtake Usman Khawaja to become the top run-scorer so far this series.
However, Australia (15/8) will still consider themselves in with a good shot of winning the Ashes outright. They can do so by either relying on one of many match-winners in the squad to seal a victory at the Oval, or by securing a draw (3/1).
In the UK, Sky Sports have the broadcast rights for the entire series, with coverage beginning at 9.30am on day one and 10.15am thereafter. The Test will be shown on Sky Sports Main Event (Channel 401/Virgin 501) and Sky Sports Cricket (Channel 404/Virgin 504). Now TV offers month-by-month subscriptions to Sky Sports.
A one-hour highlights programme will shown on BBC2 from 7pm throughout the five days.
Test Match Special will provide ball by ball radio coverage on BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra, accessible via the BBC Sport website, BBC Sport app, and BBC Sounds app.
The Cricketer will have reports and reaction from each day of the match and after each day's play, George Dobell will field your questions in our Ask George roundup. Get your questions in via our social media channels.
In Australia, fans can watch all five Tests on Fox Cricket or free-to-air on Channel 9. The series can also be streamed via Kayo and 9Now.
Elsewhere, the series will be shown on the Sony Network in India and on Supersport in South Africa. In New Zealand, Spark Sport has the broadcast rights while Willow TV is the place to go in USA and Canada.
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