Edgbaston Test: England win toss; opt to bowl first against India

Birmingham [UK], July 2 (ANI): England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl first against India in the second Test of the five-match series, which is been played at Edgbaston on Wednesday.

Going into the second Test at Birmingham, India is trailing 0-1. During the last game, India failed to defend a 371-run target on the last day of the Leeds Test, despite having four fast bowling options in Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, and Mohammed Siraj, and only one spinner, Ravindra Jadeja.

India have made three changes in their playing XI as they have brought in Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, and Akash Deep in place of Shardul Thakur, Sai Sudarshan and Jasprit Bumrah, respectively.

On the other hand, the Three Lions have made no changes in their line-up.

After winning the toss, Stokes said,"We’re going to bowl. Overhead conditions favour it. Did you consider everything (bringing Archer into the squad?). Very good team performance last week, we’re confident. You understand the conditions better as you go deeper into the Test. Brains and me and Baz are not three things you put together. Great run chase, great Test to be part of, great start to the series. Last week is last week, need to concentrate on this week."

Indian captain Shubman Gill said, “Would’ve bowled first as well. If there’s anything in the wicket, it’s on the first day. Three changes – Reddy, Washi and Akash Deep come in. No Bumrah. Just to manage his workload. We did get a good break, and this is an important match for us. But the third Test being at Lord’s, we think there’ll be more in that pitch, so we’ll use him there. We were tempted to play Kuldeep, but looking at the last match, our lower order didn’t do well, so we decided to add some depth to the batting."

Teams:

India (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.

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. (ANI)

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