5 reasons why India will defeat England in the second Test at Lord's
Team India under Virat Kohli came very close to winning the first of the ongoing five match Test series, at Edgbaston this week. Unfortunately, with almost all batsmen failing to put up a decent score on the board, the excellent work by the Indian bowlers and skipper Virat Kohli was in vain.
However, there were a lot of positives to take from the first Test match--such as Kohli being at his usual best in the challenging conditions, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma's exploits with the ball as well as Hardik Pandya's gritty knock under pressure. The defeat at Edgbaston might not deter Team India who are all set to conquer the English at Lord's once again. Let us look at the key reasons why India might defeat England at Lord's--
#5) Quite a few changes expected in the playing XI
The Indian bowlers deserve all the credit in the world for a brilliant display of bowling in both the innings during the opening game of the five match Test series, at Edgbaston. Having restricted the hosts to 287 (at one stage England were 216-3) after skipper Joe Root (80 off 156) and wicket keeper batsman Jonny Bairstow's (70 off 88) heroics, India had a very good chance of taking the first innings lead which they failed miserably in spite of Virat Kohli's splendid knock--149(225).
Every other batsman except skipper Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya (in the second innings) failed to get past even 30 runs in the match--a shocker, considering Team India's strong batting line-up.
Kohli's half century (51) and Pandya's valuable knock (31) were the only positives during India's chase of 194 runs in the fourth innings--of which they fell short by 31 runs. After a complete batting failure at Edgbaston, a few major changes can be expected in the playing XI for the second Test starting on August 9 at "The Home of Cricket" Lord's. A notable change might be the inclusion of Cheteshwar Pujara, who was left out of the playing XI in the first Test.
The Saurashtra batsman is expected to make a comeback to strengthen the beleaguered Indian middle order. With Jasprit Bumrah expected to be fit for the second Test, he will most likely make it to the XI instead of Umesh Yadav who did not have a good time with the ball at Edgbaston.
Also, young wicket keeper batsman Rishabh Pant might make his much-awaited Test debut at Lord's should the team management decide to include some fire power to the batting. Hence, fans can expect quite a few changes to the Indian XI for the second Test at Lord's.