India lock horns with England in the second Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham, starting on Wednesday, July 2. England will look to extend their lead in the five-match Test series when they face India in the second Test at Edgbaston, starting July 2. After a thrilling win in the first Test, Ben Stokes’ side will aim to make it 2-0, while Shubman Gill-led Team India will be desperate to bounce back and level the series.
England aim for 2-0, while India look for a turnaround with only one Test win in their last nine outings and selection would be the key focus if India needs to succeed at Edgbaston.
ENG vs IND : Previous Performances
In the first Test, India’s fielding was abysmal as Yashasvi Jaiswal alone dropped four catches. The batting department looked in good touch, especially the likes of captain Shubman, KL Rahul, Yashasvi, and Rishabh Pant, who scored centuries in both innings. However, Sai Sudharsan’s Test debut and Karun Nair’s international comeback didn’t go the way the two batters would have envisioned.
Another problem was India’s lower-order batting. The all-rounders and the tailenders failed to show resistance with the bat. On the other hand, the Indian bowlers had to toil hard to dismiss England’s lower order.
England will be confident about their chances as each of their top five batters scored at least one half-century in the first Test at Headingly, Leeds. Wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith also played well in both innings. There were a lot of doubts raised about England’s inexperienced bowling attack, but the likes of Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue did reasonably well.
ENG vs IND : Head to Head
| Matches Played | Â Â Â Â Â Â 137 |
| England won | Â Â Â Â Â Â 52 |
| India won | Â Â Â Â Â Â 35 |
| Â Â Â Â Draw | Â Â Â Â Â Â 50 |
| Â First Meeting | 25th to 28th June, 1932 |
| Â Last Meeting | 20th to 24th June, 2024 |
ENG vs IND : Pitch and Weather Report
The Edgbaston pitch is expected to offer pace and bounce early on, favoring fast bowlers, especially under cloudy skies. Batting should become easier on Days 3 and 4 as the surface flattens. By Day 5, spinners may get assistance due to wear and tear, with cracks creating variable bounce and turn, setting up a balanced contest.
The series began at Headingly, where the team batting second won for the seventh Test match in a row. It now shifts to another bowl-first ground; the team batting second has won each of the last four Tests at Edgbaston – this includes England’s win over India in 2022, when they pulled off their highest-ever successful chase.
The warm summer that the UK has enjoyed could potentially even things out a little for the team batting first – as it can be argued it did even at Headingly where India were on top at many points – with the dry look of the pitch prompting India to suggest they will most likely play two spinners.
Birmingham has basked in sunshine in the lead-up, but the pitch tells a layered story. There was 11mm of grass two days out, yet the surface underneath is dry. Expect big first-innings runs – just like at Headingly and in most recent County game here earlier this month.
Spin hasn’t thrived here in the Bazball era (second-lowest strike rate), but off-spinners in general have bucked that trend: Nathan Lyon and Moeen Ali made an impact in the 2023 Ashes opener, and R Ashwin starred here in 2018.
For all that, though, this has not been a happy hunting ground for spinners in recent years. Of the seven English venues to have hosted Test cricket in this decade, Edgbaston has been the third-worst ground for spinners as well as fast bowlers, but while the quicks have averaged 30.00 here, spinners have taken their wickets at 44.45.
The average scores at Edgbaston reveal a clear trend as the match progresses. Teams typically score around 310 in the first innings and about 280 in the second. However, scoring becomes tougher later, with third innings totals ranging between 230-250 and fourth innings scores dropping further to around 170–200, highlighting the increasing challenge for batters.
The weather during the five days of the Test match is expected to be on the warmer side and this could make the surface dry. While pacers will find help in the first couple of days, spinner will come into play as the game goes on. Batting last could be difficult in this Test match.
On Wednesday, the weather is expected to be cloudy with a temperature of 27 degrees Celsius. There is a 20% chance of precipitation, while humidity levels are around 53%, making the atmosphere slightly humid. Winds will blow at a steady speed of 14 km/h. There is, however, an increased chance of rainfall on the weekend.
ENG vs IND : Big Picture : India’s selection query a mystery to be solved
India have won just one of their last nine Tests. You have to go back a decade to find a nine-Test sequence this barren. From Southampton 2014 to Galle 2015, India didn’t win any of their nine Tests. That period was one of transition. So is this one.
Both have featured matches where India failed to capitalize on promising or even dominant positions. The 2014-15 sequence culminated in India losing a seemingly unlosable contest in Galle. The ninth Test of the current sequence was last week’s loss of a seemingly unlosable Test at Headingly. So many similarities.
But we’re looking back at 2014-15 from a decade’s distance, and we know what happened next. We know that India bounced back from 1-0 down, beat Sri Lanka 2-1, and began their most successful decade in Test cricket. We’re looking at 2024-25 while we’re living through it. We don’t know the next chapter of this story.
Whatever that chapter is, it will begin at Edgbaston. India have never won here, in eight previous attempts, the most recent of which was three years ago when they seemed on the cusp of a 3-1 series win only for fourth-innings centuries from Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow to drive England to a thrilling victory.
That Test was England’s fourth win in their first four Tests under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. There have been bumps in the ride since then, but Bazball has built, along the way, a compelling body of evidence that this way of playing Test cricket puts oppositions under immense pressure, particularly when conditions suit the strengths of England’s players.
It’s instructive that England’s most telling defeats in this era have come when their opponents have had control of the conditions, sometimes to the extent – as in Pakistan last year – of tweaking them to an extreme, out-of-character degree.
India cannot control the pitch or the weather at Edgbaston, and they cannot control the way the Dukes ball is made. They can, however, control their selection – at least to a large degree. Whether they include Jasprit Bumrah – who is expected to play only two of the four remaining Tests – and whether they are bold enough to forsake batting depth and pick Kuldeep Yadav, the other world-class wicket-taker in their squad, remain to be seen.
Those two collapses weren’t the sole reason India lost in Leeds despite appearing to be in control at different stages. But they were emblematic of a wider dip in intensity that new captain Shubman Gill must guard against. Test cricket demands sustained focus and consistency over long periods, which is why even an attack featuring Bumrah won’t be enough; the support acts must sing from the same sheet and will need to be backed up in the field.
Jasprit Bumrah is unlikely to play this Test match as the management is monitoring his workload diligently. Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar Reddy fielded at slips during the practice session on Monday, June 30, and it seems that he could come into the side in place of Shardul Thakur.
Kuldeep Yadav also bowled intensely during the same practice session and he is likely to come into the lineup. However, it is not clear who will replace in the side. According to various reports, Akash Deep could come into the attack in place of Bumrah
Kuldeep’s introduction, at the cost of an allrounder, played a significant role in India turning things around after they went 1-0 down to Bazball at home. They put other considerations aside, and forced England to try their approach against India’s best bowling combination.
There’s no suspense as far as England’s playing XI is concerned. The Three Lions have retained the same XI that played the first Test. This delays Jofra Archer’s wait for a Test comeback. All eyes will be on Ben Duckett, who won the Player of the Match award in the first Test. England fans will want him to carry his good form through the series.
England, meanwhile, will stick to what’s worked. Same XI, same trust in their batting to deliver over two innings on pitches that don’t break down, and where pressure often flips sides. It’s a risky ploy, but one that’s worked often enough at home to erase any asterisk. Gill and Gambhir must decide whether to meet that with boldness of their own. The amps are warming. Birmingham is ready. Time to turn the volume all the way up.
The same sort of thinking underpinned much of India’s success after that barren nine-Test run of 2014-15. After a similar run of results, what sort of thinking will the India of 2025 adopt would decide the future of the series and Indian cricket.
ENG vs IND : Vital stats that matters
- Six of the England’s 17 successful chases of 250-plus targets in their Test history have come in the Bazball era.
- Joe Root is 73 runs away from becoming the first batter to score 3000 runs against India in Test cricket
- Since the start of the 2024-25 Australia tour, Jasprit Bumrah has picked up 29 Test wickets at an average of 16.75. Their other bowlers have taken a combined 46 wickets at 47.22.
- Kuldeep Yadav has the best strike rates(37.3) of all the spinners in Test history to have taken at least 50 wickets.
- India have not won a Test match at Edgbaston in eight previous attempts (D1, L7). England too have lost three of the last five Tests here at what is their fortress
- Joe Root has 102 50-plus scores in Tests, one short of equaling Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting. Only Sachin Tendulkar (119) has more
- Ravindra Jadeja averages 78 with the ball in his last four Tests and has taken only 5 wickets in 110 overs
ENG vs IND : Team News for England and India
England :
England may have trailed for most of the first Test but true to the Bazball blueprint, they delivered when it mattered. Stokes’ men chased down a mammoth 371 at Headingly, flexing nerves of steel. The skipper has backed his XI and announced an unchanged lineup for Edgbaston.
With momentum on their side and their attack clicking when needed, England will be eyeing a 2-0 cushion to put India under the pump.
The hosts have opted to stick with the XI that won them the Leeds opener. So that means, no Test return just yet for Jofra Archer, but he will continue to stick around the group this weekend to get a feel of the vibe of Test cricket.
England Playing XI : Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk.), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
India :Â
India bossed large parts of the opening Test but still ended up on the wrong side of the result. Shubman Gill’s men had the game in their pocket until it slipped out in the crunch moments. Heading into Edgbaston, they will need to fix those final-hour nerves.
With Jasprit Bumrah likely to be rested to manage workload, Mohammed Siraj is set to lead the attack. Arshdeep Singh could come in for variety with his left-arm angle. Prasidh Krishna leaked runs in Leeds and could be swapped for Akash Deep, while the likes of Nitish Reddy and Kuldeep Yadav are also in contention to bolster balance. It is now or never because 2-0 scoreline will be a mountain to climb.
If Bumrah does sit this one out, Akash Deep appears the likeliest from the next batch to step in. He bowled with control and heart in Australia, even if the returns didn’t come. He’s expected to join Siraj and Prasidh Krishna in the pace attack.
India are also likely to make a change at No.8 after Shardul Thakur’s cold returns in Leeds. A two-spinner setup is under serious consideration, though the second spinner may not be Kuldeep Yadav. Washington Sundar is being looked at as a more rounded option at No.8, especially with offspinners having enjoyed recent success at Edgbaston.
India’s Probable Playing XI : Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk.), Karun Nair, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar/Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Deep/Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav
ENG vs IND Fantasy Playing XI : Rishabh Pant(wk.), Joe Root(c), KL Rahul, Ben Duckett(vc), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ben Stokes, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue
ENG vs IND : Players in the Spotlight : Ben Stokes and Sai Sudharsan
Ben Stokes the bowler is back. Fitness concerns restricted him to a batting-only role during the tour of India last year, and that hampered England’s balance severely on their way to a 4-1 defeat. He’s bowled regularly since then, though, and has sent down at least 35 overs in two of his last three Tests – in Hamilton against New Zealand and at Headingly last week.
Headingly was also his first five-wicket match haul since 2022. With the bat, though, Stokes showed signs of an issue that had dogged him right through last year’s India tour: a seeming lack of trust in his defense against spin. His reverse-sweep-everything approach brought him a fluky 33 in the fourth innings, but it will also have given India an idea of what and how to bowl to him.
At Headingly, B Sai Sudharsan became the first India batter to make a men’s Test debut with a sub-40 first-class average since another Tamil Nadu left-hander, WV Raman, in January 1988.
He showed why the selectors had picked him despite that – and trusted him to bat at No. 3 – meeting the ball right under his eyes while scoring 30 in the second innings, but his dismissals in both innings to half-volleys on or outside leg stump showed he may still have work to do to hold his own against the planning and ruthlessness of Test-match attacks.
ENG vs IND : Match Prediction
These two sides are among the best in the world, but England have been a shade more convincing in recent times. Under Gautam Gambhir India haven’t quite mastered the art of winning red-ball matches, and it’s hard to pick them as the team with the upper hand despite their immense potential and match-winning ability. A close contest is likely, with England perhaps holding a slight edge.
Prediction: England to win the 2nd Test vs India.
Also Read:Â ENG vs IND : Shubman Gill Appointed Test Skipper For Red Ball