2 players unlucky to miss out from India's Playing XI for the second Test
India aims to make a comeback in the 5-match series while England aims to continue the winning momentum as the crucial second Test begins at the historic ground of Lords.
The England team has pinned their hopes on rookie players and has decided to give a Test debut to the young Ollie Pope. On the other hand, Virat Kohli has continued the trend of not going with the same playing XI in two matches.
There were a lot of speculations about India's playing XI and changes India could make after the defeat in the first Test. India did make two changes in the playing XI with Pujara and Kuldeep in for Dhawan and Umesh.
India's Playing XI - Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik, Ravichandran Ashwin, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd Shami, Ishant Sharma
However, there are some players who deserved to play the second Test in place of some out of form players. Here are the two players who are unlucky to miss out on being part of the playing XI.
#2 Umesh Yadav
India has decided to play an extra spinner in the second Test, which means Umesh Yadav has to make way for Kuldeep Yadav. Umesh might consider himself unlucky as he did not have a bad first Test. While he looked wayward in the first innings, the speedster came back in the second by picking two crucial wickets, bowling economically. He also batted well and stitched an important partnership of 57 runs with captain Kohli. However, India has adopted a 'horses for courses' method and thus Umesh was dropped from the playing XI.
#1 Ravindra Jadeja
Ravindra Jadeja might feel hard done as Kuldeep Yadav was preferred over him in the second Test. Even though Jadeja hasn't done anything extraordinary in overseas conditions, he would have hoped to get in the playing XI in case the team plays with two spinners. Jadeja can also contribute with the bat and has played some decisive innings in the lower order for Team India. It is ironic that a bowler, who is ranked third in ICC's Test bowlers ranking, can't get into the playing XI of the Indian team.