India have selected Washington Sundar over Kuldeep Yadav as their second spinner for the Edgbaston Test. Here's why.
Bumrah, Sai Sudharsan, Shardul left out for Edgbaston Test
The visitors have made three changes to the lineup that lost by five wickets at Headingley last week – Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah and B Sai Sudharsan have been left out for Nitish Kumar Reddy, Akash Deep and Washington Sundar.
Bumrah's exclusion was somewhat expected, given the fact that he is set to play only three of the five Tests in the series. Thakur's exclusion is not a massive surprise either, given his limited role in the first Test – he lasted just 20 deliveries, and bowled only 16 overs.
India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate had hinted pre-match that they could go in with an extra spinner, in addition to Ravindra Jadeja. It had been assumed this would be wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav, but off-spinning all-rounder Washington Sundar has been selected instead.
Skipper Shubman Gill explained the decision at the toss, saying, “We were very tempted to play him [Kuldeep] but looking at the last match we wanted to add some depth to the batting.”
India lost 7-41 and 6-31 during their batting innings at Headingley, with much discussion around their tailenders not putting a price on their wicket. Sundar is a more than capable batter, but it remains to be seen whether the bottom four of Sundar-Akash Deep-Krishna-Siraj will provide significantly better returns than the Thakur-Bumrah-Krishna-Siraj tail in the last game.
Read more: India's Test tail is the worst in world cricket, but they can do little about it
England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to field first, with India losing an early wicket when KL Rahul chopped on to Chris Woakes.
Playing XIs for second England-India Test at Edgbaston
England: Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.
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