The opening Test match at Leeds, Headingley, was hard work for the bowlers and England all-rounder Chris Woakes has acknowledged that another hard week could be on the cards for the bowlers. However, the Edgbaston pitch is expected to deteriorate as the average fourth innings score is 157.
India’s think tank is contemplating playing two spinners in the side and it could be the right move, especially in the absence of gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who is expected to be rested to manage his workload.
India had thrown away the advantage in the opening Test despite being in a commanding position and they would want to shut the door on England. The visitors must look to capitalise and deliver as a unit to level the series, as they can’t afford to go 0-2 down in the series.
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Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal needs 97 runs to complete 2000 runs in the red-ball version.
Ravindra Jadeja needs 94 runs to complete 3500 runs in the Test format.
India’s vice-captain Rishabh Pant needs two fours to complete 350 boundaries in the multi-day format.
KL Rahul needs 64 runs to complete 3500 runs in the Test format.
Harry Brook needs 62 runs to reach the 2500-run mark in Test cricket.
Joe Root needs five sixes to reach 50 maximums in the oldest format.
Ollie Pope needs 85 runs to reach 3500 runs in the Test format.
England Playing XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
India’s Probable Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Reddy, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
India Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill(c), Rishabh Pant(w), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana
England squad for 2nd Test: Ben Stokes (C), Jofra Archer, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes.
