Lord’s Test: India asked to bat first against England

England won the toss and asked India to bat first in the second Test of the ongoing five-match series here at Lord’s Cricket Ground on Friday.

Following the toss, Indian skipper Virat Kohli said,” We would have bowled first as well. There’s a bit of weather around over the next few days. But it’s a hard pitch, looks dry, and everyone looks like they can be in. The guys are confident, they are playing well… Just about getting the mental side of things right.”

England captain Joe Root, on the other hand, said that they would look to get some early wickets and move themselves ahead in the game.

Reflecting on the Playing XI, Kohli confirmed that Cheteshwar Pujara and Kuldeep Yadav have replaced Shikhar Dhawan and Umesh Yadav, while KL Rahul would open the inning for the team.

For England, Chris Woakes has been called in place of Ben Stokes.

The opening day of the second match was washed out without a ball being bowled following heavy rain at Lord’s. To compensate for that, match officials have decided to add extra thirty minutes of play to the remaining four days of the match.

The Kohli-led side will look to get back to winning ways and settle scores with England after losing in the opening Test at Edgbaston with a narrow margin of 31 runs.

The two squads are as follows:
India XI: M Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma.

England XI: Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Joe Root (capt), Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.