After a thrilling finish in the opening match of the series, India and England will square off in the 2nd Test from Visakhapatnam starting this Friday afternoon. As always, we have you covered with a full preview and betting tips for the clash below. Good luck to everyone following!
India vs England 2nd Test Betting Tips
Visakhapatnam, Friday 2nd February, 3.00pm (AEDT)
After a first innings that had India well and truly in the box seat and heavy favourites for the match, England pulled off one of the all-time wins in the 1st Test, overcoming a 190 run deficit to win by 28 runs.
England were bowled out for 246 in the first innings, as Ben Stokes playing the lone hand with 70. England countered by piling on 436 as three players in Jaiswal, Rahul and Jadeja all surpassed 80. Joe Root was the pick of the bowlers in the first innings, taking 4/79.
At that stage, it looked like India might only need to bat once in the game, but Ollie Pope had other ideas, as he piled on 196 to lead England to a third innings score of 420, putting them 230 in front.
Debutant spinner Tom Hartley was the star of the show in the final innings, winning the game for England by taking 7/62 off 26.2 overs. England take a 1-0 lead in the series, setting it up nicely to be one to remember.
India
India will have some major changes to the line-up ahead of the 2nd Test. Virat Kohli was already sidelined for the opening two Test matches, and now two more of India’s linchpins in KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja will miss the 2nd Test through injury.
One of Washington Sundar or Kuldeep Yadav look the likely replacements for Jadeja, unless India opt to go for a third seamer, which I think is unlikely to happen. Rahul’s replacement looks a little more up in the air at the moment, as Sarfaraz Khan and Rajat Patidar are both in contention to take the place in the middle order.
Predicted India XI: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, Srikar Bharat, Axar Patel, Ravi Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav
England
As is customary in the new BazBall era, England have named their side nice and early, so the speculation on selection is not necessary on this side of the ball. Off spinner Shoaib Bashir will make his Test debut while seamer James Anderson will come into the side at the expense of pacemen Mark Wood.
England have opted for three front-line spinners with Joe Root as the fourth spinning option, a formation that worked for them in the opening Test, but one that could easily backfire if the pitch has any life given Ben Stokes is still unable to bowl.
England XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson
Betting Tips
There are some serious concerns over the experience of India’s batting line-up for this Test, but I still think they will bounce back to level the series here. Ollie Pope batted brilliantly in that 2nd innings, but he played largely a lone hand and I just don’t think that style of batting is easily reproducible on these spin friendly Indian pitches.
Even without Jadeja for this Test, India still have arguably the best Test spinner in the world at the moment in Ashwin, flanked by Axar, who averages 40 with the bat and 17 with the ball in India. Back them to win here and level the series.
