India and England are set to face each other in the second Test, starting Friday, February 2 at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
The hosts are under a bit of pressure after losing the first Test by 28 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
Moreover, India faced injury concerns after Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul were ruled out due to injuries. In their place, the home team roped in Washington Sundar, Sourabh Kumar and Sarfaraz Khan.
In Rahul’s absence, it remains to be seen who between Patidar and Sarfaraz gets picked. Sarfaraz recently won the Player of the Match award while playing for India A against England Lions at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Patidar had earlier replaced Virat Kohli in the Indian squad for the first 2 Tests after the latter pulled out due to ‘personal reasons’.
Who between Sundar and Kuldeep?
With Jadeja not available after he complained of quadriceps pain, India have a choice to make with Kuldeep Yadav and Sundar being the other options in the spin department. Sundar is a stronger contender as he is a like-for-like replacement for Jadeja being an all-rounder.
India also have the option of picking both Kuldeep and Sundar if they are planning to field four spinners in their XI. In that case, Jasprit Bumrah is likely to be India’s lone seamer with Mohammed Siraj being left out of the playing XI.
Shubman Gill is most likely to retain his place despite not being at his best. In his last 6 Tests, the youngster scored 173 runs at an average of 17.30 with a top score of 36. In the Hyderabad Test against England, Gill got scores of 23 and 0.
Rohit Sharma and Ravi Ashwin, who is nearing the landmark of 500 Test wickets, have to play crucial roles if India are to make a comeback with their backs against the walls.
India’s Predicted XI for 2nd Test
Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Sarfaraz Khan/Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, Kuldeep Yadav/Washington Sundar, Srikar Bharat (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Tune In
