Team India will look to equalize the series at the historic Lord’s Test after they lost a closely fought first Test at Birmingham. However, with rains washing out the first day’s play with no toss, this makes the five-day Test, now a four-day Test match and viewers and players will be praying for no more rain.
England has a good chance of taking a 2-0 lead in the series, while India will be hoping to gain inspiration from their 2014 win here and the fact that England has not won any Test here in recent past against Asian nations.
England clawed their way back in the first Test but will be missing a couple of big names in the second Test. Most notable of those names is that of all-rounder Ben Stokes, who is currently attending court for the charges of affray. Joe Root already confirmed the debut of 20-year-old Ollie Pope and it will be a tossup for the spot of Stokes. England has not yet won a Test against visiting Asian sides in the last 6 Test matches played at Lord’s and given that India had beaten them here in 2014, will ring on the minds of England players.
India, on the other hand, will be pondering over their best playing XI given the big failure of their batting apart from captain Virat Kohli, who singlehandedly kept India in the game at Edgbaston. He will definitely look for some more support from the other end if India is to win the Test at Lord’s. Another option is to play an extra spinner in the XI, given the turning nature of Lord’s pitch.
England will look to win the match despite the absence of their mercurial all-rounder Ben Stokes, while India will hope for some other batsmen putting their hands up in supporting the one-man army of Virat Kohli and equaling the series at the home of cricket.
Toss:
Playing XIs:
England: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root(c), Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow(w), Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
India: Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma
