India bat in Visakhapatnam, Anderson back for England
VISAKHAPATNAM, India (Reuters) - India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat against England in the second test of the five-match series on Thursday.
The hosts made two changes to their side that drew the opening test in Rajkot.
Fit-again opener Lokesh Rahul, who joined the Indian squad having recovered from a hamstring injury, replaced Gautam Gambhir while off-spinner Jayant Yadav makes his test debut at the same ground where he played his only one-dayer against New Zealand last month.
Leg-spinner Amit Mishra made way for the 26-year-old Yadav with Kohli saying the decision was made because the England batting line-up had quite a few left-handers.
England welcomed back experience paceman James Anderson in the side for fast bowler Chris Woakes, who was rested to manage his workload.
Anderson, England's most prolific wicket-taker, has not played since August with a shoulder injury and was the only change for the visiting team.
"Looks like a pretty decent wicket to bat on first up and there'll be little bit of turn later on the day or the second day as we expect," Kohli said at the toss.
"It's a typical Vizag wicket like it has always been here. Rajkot was a much harder surface with an even covering of grass on it.
"This one's gonna be challenging for the batters I feel. The ball is going to do much more here than Rajkot. Good toss to win and we want to put decent runs on the board now."
England captain Alastair Cook said the tourists would try to restrict India to a modest first innings total.
"It looks like a good toss to win. But we have nothing to lose whatsoever," Cook said. "There will be lot of pressure on India on this kind of wicket. Their home conditions and looks like a turning track.
"If we can upset the odds here it will be a great start for us. It might do a little bit with the new ball. We are going to try and restrict India to a manageable first innings total.
"Obviously it's great that Jimmy's ready to go, well as ready as he can be without any match practice. But the bloke has 470 wickets so he knows what he's doing."
Teams:
India: Lokesh Rahul, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha (wicketkeeper), Jayant Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav
England: Alastair Cook (captain), Haseeb Hameed, Joe Root, Ben Duckett, Moeen Ali, Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Zafar Ansari, James Anderson, Adil Rashid, Stuart Broad
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Amlan Chakraborty)