Moeen Ali named England vice-captain for fourth Test against India at The Kia Oval

Moeen Ali has been named as England's vice-captain for the fourth Test against India.

The off-spinning all-rounder will be Joe Root's deputy with wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler missing the game at The Kia Oval from Thursday due to his wife expecting their second child.

Ben Stokes usually acts as Root's vice-captain but is currently taking time away from the game in order to focus on his mental wellbeing and to rest his left index finger.

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"It's amazing," Moeen told Sky Sports News. "Joe pulled me over this morning and told me the good news. I'm absolutely buzzing to be vice-captain.

"To captain or vice-captain England in any form of the game is a huge honour, and I'm very excited.

"Obviously, I'm not hoping for Joe to go off the field, but if he does go off, I'm looking forward to the role."

Moeen later added when speaking to reporters: "I feel like I can bring some ideas to the role. If there's anything he [Root] is unsure of, I feel like I can just throw ideas at him.

"I stand at mid-off to the bowlers often and we speak about how they want to try and bowl, and what potential fields they can have.

"I like coming from a batter's point of view, where I'll speak to the bowlers and tell them how I feel a batter is playing and what he might be thinking."

Moeen returned to the England side for the second Test of the India series and has since scored 48 runs and taken four wickets across two matches.

The 34-year-old captained England in a T20 international against Australia in 2020, while he led Worcestershire to the Vitality Blast title in 2018 and also skippered Hundred finalists Birmingham Phoenix this season.

Of Moeen's appointment, Root said: "Moeen is a natural leader. He is someone the team gravitates towards for a number of reasons but one of them is the way he understands the game.

"You saw the conversations him and Jimmy [Anderson] were having in the last game at crucial points.

"He has a brilliant cricketing brain and has done wonderfully well [as captain] in domestic cricket and for England in the shorter formats.

"I am really excited for him and I think he is absolutely the right man for the role. It is thoroughly deserved with how he goes about the game and what he offers to the team.

"He seemed pretty excited and I am sure he will be looking forward to getting the DRS signal out when I am off the field at some point!"

England drew level in the five-match series against Virat Kohli's side after completing an innings-and-76-run victory in the third Test at Emerald Headingley in Leeds.

Jonny Bairstow will keep wicket for England at The Kia Oval in Buttler's absence, with Ollie Pope and Dan Lawrence vying to take the final batting spot.

Bowlers Chris Woakes and Mark Wood are back in the squad after overcoming heel and shoulder problems respectively.

India - who won the second Test at Lord's by 151 runs - have added right-arm seam bowler Prasidh Krishna to their squad for the fourth Test.

The 25-year-old - who played three one-day internationals against England in Pune earlier this year - has been training and travelling with India throughout the tour having initially been named as a standby player.

Prasidh has taken 34 wickets at an average of 20.26 in his nine first-class matches to date, with a best of 5-49 and two further four-wicket hauls.

India bowling coach Bharat Arun said: "Krishna is a precautionary inclusion. He has been included mainly considering the workload management issues [of the other bowlers]. Ishant Sharma's form was a bit of a concern in the last Test but I think we have things sorted out."

Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin will also hope to play his first Test of the summer, at a ground where he took a six-wicket haul while playing for Surrey against Somerset in the LV= Insurance County Championship in July.

Watch the fourth Test between England and India live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10am on Thursday.