Former India opener Aakash Chopra has predicted the winner of the second Test between England and India ahead of the commencement of day five at Lord’s on August 16.
India has a lead of 154 runs with 4 wickets in hand when they resume day five on 181/6. India will have to rely on Rishabh Pant to shepherd the tail and add valuable runs to the target to put some kind of pressure on the England team.
If India manages to put up a target of 220 odd runs, the England team has shown reluctance to go for the runs, something they did against New Zealand in their last series as well.
However, Aakash Chopra, in a video shared on his YouTube channel, predicted that England will be the winners of the second Test at Lord’s.
He said: "You can kill me for that, I am saying England to win. I feel England will win this encounter because the pitch has become slower but not deteriorated. An oddball is staying low or climbing, it is not a variable bounce that might disturb you and it is not going to turn that much."
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He further pessimistically stated that India will not last for more than twenty overs and might stretch the lead to around 190 at the most.
"India will be all out in the first 20 overs. If we are all out inside twenty overs, what is the kind of score that you are looking at? 190 I think is where India will reach. If they go beyond that, the story will be different. India's chances of defending will increase significantly if it is a score over 200. But I think it might not be possible to reach there with the second new ball and the long tail that we have," he added.
Furthermore, he predicted that James Anderson will take two more wickets on day five and that Jasprit Bumrah will be the key for the Indian team if they want to have an outside chance of winning this Test match. Bumrah seemed to lack rhythm and went wicketless in England's first innings of the Lord's Test.
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“Anderson to take two wickets. Four are left and in that, I am saying Anderson will take two. New ball will come and he can cause trouble.
When India comes to bowl, I feel Bumrah will take two or more wickets. I think Bumrah is going to play a key role in India's fortunes on Day 5. You should keep your eyes set on Jasprit Bumrah today because he is the one who can make things happen on this slowish surface," he said.
