IND vs ENG 2nd Test Live: Jaiswal eyes ton; 2nd session begins at Edgbaston after lunch

India vs England Live Score, 2nd Test Match Day 1: England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and chose to bowl first in the second Test of the five-match series against India, being played at Edgbaston, Birmingham on Wednesday. The decision comes with overhead conditions expected to assist the seamers early on.

India come into this Test trailing 0-1, after a disappointing loss in the series opener at Leeds, where they failed to defend a target of 371 on the final day despite fielding four pacers — Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, and Mohammed Siraj — and only one spinner in Ravindra Jadeja.

IND vs ENG Schedule | Series Stats | Squads

As a result, India have made three changes to their XI. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, and Akash Deep replace Shardul Thakur, Sai Sudharsan, and Jasprit Bumrah, who has been rested to manage his workload.

England, on the other hand, have kept their line-up unchanged from the first Test, sticking with the same playing XI that delivered a strong performance in Leeds.

At 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.”

India skipper Shubman Gill responded: “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.”

Playing XIs

India: 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: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.