Akash Deep has come in place of Jasprit Bumrah in the playing XI.
Jasprit Bumrah is not playing in the second Test against England at Edgbaston, as India make a plethora of changes to their playing XI. He has been rested as part of his workload management since he featured in the first game.
The team management had already confirmed that Bumrah will play only three games in the series to keep him injury-free, given his recent injury issues. He suffered a recurring back injury in the final Test in Australia. Eventually, he had to miss out on the action for a few months.
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The medical team has reportedly advised him to feature in only three games to avoid any risk of injury and prolong his career. More back injuries can potentially cause serious effects on his remaining career. So, the management made a wise call by restricting him from playing back-to-back games.
Bumrah also looked slightly off-colour in the second innings of the first Test. He was probably not 100% fit, but no official report was made. If he had niggles, this rest will help him recover fully before returning in Lord’s Test, starting July 10.
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A rest to Jasprit Bumrah opened the way for Akash Deep, who plays his maiden game in England. He was an ideal replacement for Bumrah, even though India had the option to pick Arshdeep Singh as a left-arm pacer since he provides variety to the bowling attack.
Akash had played two overseas Tests before, both in Australia, where he did a decent job with the ball. He snared five wickets at an average of 54 across four innings, with a best of 2/28.
For him, the key will be to bowl slightly fuller than his natural lengths, given most of his red-ball cricket has been built on Indian pitches, where the lengths are not as full. He has big shoes to fill, and Deep won’t have enough assistance off the deck since it will be dry.
Among other changes that India have made are bringing in Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar for Sai Sudharsan and Shardul Thakur. That suggests they expect the pitch to be dry and on the slower side. It has tempted India to bring in an additional spinner, even though Kuldeep Yadav would have been a better choice.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (w), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.
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