India and England are facing each other in the second game of the five-match Test series being played at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam. In this match, Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first.
For today, India has made three changes in the playing XI. KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja are out due to their respective injuries, and pacer Mohammed Siraj has been rested. During the toss, the Indian skipper said that Kuldeep Yadav has joined the squad in place of Ravindra Jadeja, Mukesh Kumar has replaced Siraj and Rajat Patidar is making his debut as KL Rahul misses out.
During the toss, Rohit Sharma said, “We’ll bat first. Looks like a good pitch, the pitch will do its thing, we need to play good cricket. What happened in Hyderabad is history, we need to move on. We have spoken on things we need to do, now we need to execute our plans. I thought we batted well in the first innings but didn’t have the same intent. Similarly, in the second innings with the bowl, there was a brilliant knock by Ollie Pope.”
While talking about the team composition, the Indian skipper asserted, “Injuries are part and parcel of the game, but that’s why we have the guys sitting on the bench. Two unforced changes (meant forced) – Jadeja and KL missed out, and Siraj has been rested. We’ve got Mukesh, Kuldeep, and Rajat Patidar making his debut.”
For England, Shoaib Bashir is making his debut in place of Jack Leach.
