Earlier in the five-match series, the England team led by Ben Stokes stunned India by grabbing an early 1-0 lead. In the last ten years, it was just India’s fourth loss in the longest format. With the best W/L record in the format at home since 2014, India will look to make a comeback against England in the second Test, which begins on February 2 in Visakhapatnam, in an attempt to show that this is an exception rather than an ongoing trend.
India chooses to bat first after Rohit Sharma wins the toss in the second Test of the five-match series against England in Visakhapatnam. Three changes have been made to India’s starting lineup. Rajat Patidar, making his Test debut, and Kuldeep Yadav have replaced the injured KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja. Mohammed Siraj is replaced by Mukesh Kumar.
Conversely, England has made a couple of changes from their previous win. In place of the injured Jack Leach, off-spinner Shoaib Bashir is making his debut, and Mark Wood will be replaced by James Anderson.
Indian openers got team off to a watchful start
It appears that Visakhapatnam has a beautiful wicket for batting. The top layer is black soil, whereas the bottom layer is red soil. On Day 1, there will be some turn, but not too much. It is anticipated that the spinners will enter the game later in the test. For batting, the first two days were undoubtedly superior.
England started with their experienced player James Anderson, who showed his experience once again as there was not much help for the bowlers earlier in the game, but he kept on bowling on the wicket-to-wicket lines to ask some tough questions to both openers, with occasional balls swinging away from Rohit Sharma.
On the other end, Joe Root came into the attack for England, but he was not able to find his rhythm. The England bowlers made sure that India didn’t get free bees as Rohit Sharma and Jaiswal started watchfully, scoring 40/0 in the 16 overs.
Shoaib Bashir got the big wicket of Rohit Sharma
Not only did Rohit Sharma score just 14 runs from 41 balls, but he remained unwavering throughout the morning, demonstrating England’s discipline as well as India’s determination to make amends for their sloppy first innings in Hyderabad, where all five of their players fell to attacking strokes.
But this time, the captain’s wicket is proven by the entrenchment. Debutant Shoaib Bashir had shown the solidity of his line and length right from the outset of his spell, and he got the result of that in the form of Rohit Sharma’s wicket. On an off-break from youngster Shoaib Bashir, India’s captain Rohit Sharma closes the face of his bat and tucks his leg glance straight to Ollie Pope at leg slip.
Shoaib Bashir got his maiden test wicket in the fourth over, and it was a richly deserved one too.
What’s next for India?
After the wicket of the Indian skipper, Shubman Gill, who was struggling with his poor form, looked good in the initial phase of his play and formed a great partnership of 49 (68) with Jaiswal. Gill got out on Anderson’s bowling as he poked forward, and Ben Foakes swallowed a flying edge with a leap to his right.
Yashasvi Jaiswal kept on ticking the scoreboard and completed his half-century, and India were at 103/2 with Jaiswal and Iyer on the crease at the time of the lunch.