England make 2 changes for 2nd Test against India, Shoaib Bashir to make his debut

The England men's cricket team have announced the playing XI for the 2nd Test against India in Vishakhapatnam, which begins on February 2. Shoaib Bashir will make his Test debut in Vishakhapatnam, replacing the injured Jack Leach.

Leach sustained a knee injury while fielding during the 1st Test against Hyderabad. The Somerset spinner bowled only brief spells in the first innings and followed it by sending down 10 overs in the second to finish with a solitary wicket of Shreyas Iyer. The 32-year-old also skipped the training session on Wednesday.

England have also made one more change, bringing in James Anderson for Mark Wood. The latter also played as the lone seamer in Hyderabad and went wicketless in both innings, finishing with figures of 25-2-62-0 across the match.

England playing XI for 2nd Test: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson.

Ben Stokes speaks highly of Shoaib Bashir ahead of his England debut

England skipper and all-rounder Ben Stokes revealed that some earlier clips of Bashir's clips impressed them, making the 20-year-old a tempting prospect. He said in a pre-match presser:

"To be perfectly honest, Abu Dhabi was the first real live look I got at Bash. The first time I saw him was on Twitter. I think the County Championship [account] put a little clip together of him bowling against Sir Alastair.

"I'm in a WhatsApp group with Keysy and Baz. I actually did forward the clip on and said, 'Have a look at this, this could be something we could work with on our India tour,' and it just progressed from there."

Off-spinner Bashir experienced a delay in visa due to his Pakistani origins and linked up with the squad amid the opening match in Hyderabad. India have a couple of injury concerns of their own it will be interesting to see how they line up for the Vishakhapatnam Test.