India and England are squaring off in the second test in the rank turner conditions of Chepauk stadium in Chennai. The first test was played at the same stadium in a different pitch which was red in colour and had nothing for bowlers in the starting two days. England after winning the toss, chose to bat first and put good amount of runs on the board to eke way ahead in the game. Indian batters were left with a tough job when the pitch had many rough patches, making job easy for the English bowlers. The Joe Root led team didn’t give any opportunity to the Indian team and won the test match by 227 runs, which ends up as their biggest victory in India.
In the second test, India won the toss and chose to bat first at a pitch which was assisting the spinners from the start. It is not easy to bat on the wicket and scoring runs becomes very important to be on the drivers seat. The pitch will deteriorate as the time passes by, making it a graveyard for the batsman.
What will be the ideal score for first innings
A twitter user asked the on air commentators of Star Sports to make a prediction about the ideal score for India in the first innings. Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar noted that anything around 350-370 runs will be an ideal score and another commentator Deep Das Gupta said that 350 can be a winning total in the test match.
Team news
India made three changes coming into the second test match. They rested Jasprit Bumrah and replaced him with Hyderabad pacer Mohammad Siraj. Axar Patel made his test debut in place of Washington Sundar while Kuldeep Yadav played in place of Shahbaz Nadeem.
England made four changes as they replaced Jos Buttler, who has flown back home with wicketkeeper Ben Foakes. Moeen Ali came in place of Don Bess while Jofra Archer’s injury made way for Olly Stone. Veteran paces James Anderson was rested ahead of the day-night test in Ahmedabad and was replaced by Stuart Broad.
