Birmingham: England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl against India, who will be without pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, in the second Test of the five-match series here Wednesday.
England fielded an unchanged side that won the opening Test by five wickets.
India decided to rest premier pacer Bumrah with Akash Deep replacing him. While all-rounders Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar came in for Sai Sudharsan and Shardul Thakur in the playing XI.
Asked why Bumrah was left out, India skipper Shubman Gill said: “Just to manage his workload, this is an important match, but the third match being at Lords, there will be a bit in the wicket, and we thought we’ll play him there.”
There was also no Kuldeep Yadav, and Gill said they looked to add depth to the batting following the defeat in the series opener.
“We were tempted to play him but we thought of adding a bit of depth in our batting,” said Gill.
England will wear black armbands on Wednesday in memory of former England, Northamptonshire and Durham cricketer Wayne Larkins, who passed away on June 28.
England had chased down 371 on the final day to win the first Test at Headingley.
Teams:
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.
