India made three changes in their Playing XI for the second Test against England at Edgbaston. Jasprit Bumrah was unavailable for the match due to fitness concerns while Sai Sudharsan was dropped after his debut Test. Shardul Thakur too has not been included in the Playing XI. The Shubman Gill-led side has added Akash Deep, Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy in the place of the three outgoing players.
The selection of Reddy and Sundar over Kuldeep Yadav came as a shock to many who thought the inclusion of the wrist-spinner was a no-brainer. The left-arm wrist-spinner was expected to provide the sting to the bowling attack which it lacked in the first match where England chased down 371 in the fourth innings.
Many on social media called the team selection defensive. However, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan explained the logic behind the selection and said that it was not a defensive option.
"I think having a long batting is not a defensive call," Irfan had said ahead of the match. "...It is just addressing your weakness that has troubled for you for some time now."
Irfan was hinting at the lower order collapse that hurt India twice in the first Test as their last four batters could add just nine runs in both innings combined.
"Yes you can say that you want to play five bowlers, but tell me if Kuldeep Yadav is playing and the pitch has 10mm grass and if Kuldeep is coming into the game on the fourth day and you are already far behind in the game in the first three days, then what will you do?
"So, this is the call team management needs to make and sometimes it is very, very tough. So, you think what is best way and which are the players who will be there in the game either batting wise or bowling wise throughout the Test match at majority of time. Because it is a five day game and on all five days the game unfolds in its own different ways. So this is why you want to address the thing that has become your Achilles heel for some time now.
He also backed Reddy and Sundar to be good with the ball apart from adding crucial runs for the team.
"So the right direction will be to sort out the lower order batting but that also does not mean that if Washington Sundar is playing then he can not bowl. He can definitely bowl and give you 10 or 15 overs a day. Nitish Kumar Reddy can also bowl.
The move to play three specialist bowlers coupled with some all-rounders comes as a departure from the captaincy days of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma where India consistently fielded five bowling options. Irfan, though, said that good teams have also played well with four bowlers.
"So, you will have two defensive bowler and then you will also have three fast bowlers who will attack and take wickets. Australia for a long time has used four bowlers. We have now got used to playing with five bowlers but even if there are four bowlers then also you can attack.
"So you will expect your lead bowlers like Siraj, Akash Deep and Prasidh to bowl at least 18 overs each. You will have almost 55-60 overs of attacking bowling then. In the remaining overs you can have Jadeja, Sundar and Reddy bowl defensively. And they can also take wickets. So I dont think India are getting defensive."
India Vs England, 2nd Test: Playing XIs
England won the toss and decided to bowl first in the second Test.
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (capt), Rishabh Pant (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
