Jasprit Bumrah was replaced by Akash Deep; Sai Sudarshan and Shardul Thakur were also not selected for the Edgbaston Test.
India in the ring without Bumrah – Second Test begins, England wins toss and opts to field
Edgbaston, July 2:
The second Test match of the five-Test series between India and England, which began at Edgbaston on Tuesday, caused a sensation with the toss result on the first morning. England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to field. The absence of key pacer Jasprit Bumrah in the Indian team was notable.
Pacer Akash Deep has been given a place in Bumrah’s place. Sai Sudarshan and Shardul Thakur, who played the first match of the series, have been dropped from the team. Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy are playing in their places. Indian captain Shubman Gill has made it clear that these changes were made with the intention of increasing depth in the batting.
“It is a crucial match, but the third Test will be played at Lord’s. The conditions there are likely to be favourable for pace. That is why we have rested Bumrah for this match with the intention of playing him there,” Gill said.
“There was no intention of playing Bumrah. But we made changes with the idea that we needed more consistency in the batting,” Gill revealed.
Meanwhile, in the first Test match held at Leeds, England successfully chased down a target of 371 runs and took a 1-0 lead. England gave the team that won that match an opportunity without any further changes.
The teams for the second Test are as follows:
England:
Jack Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith (wicketkeeper), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carsey, Josh Tanguy, Shoaib Bashir.
India:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, K.L. Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (captain), Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Fareed Krishna.