India's Strongest playing XI for the 2nd test against England
India lost the first Test by a marginal 31 runs with every batsman in the team failing except for Virat Kohli, whose 149 in the first innings helped restrict England's lead to just 13 runs. His 51 in the second innings was the highest in the team again but he couldn't take the side across the line. Hardik Pandya almost won India the test before he was dismissed by Ben Stokes. Let's look at India's strongest playing 11 for the 2nd Test match.
#1 Openers
Murali Vijay
In the first Test, none of India's openers did well with Shikhar Dhawan scoring more runs than Murali Vijay but he was the least comfortable against the swinging ball. KL Rahul couldn't get any runs and looked out of sorts but Murali Vijay looked comfortable from the first ball and got more runs than KL Rahul.
Rishabh Pant
A lot of people wouldn't expect to see Rishabh Pant this early in the series but he is in a brilliant from and in addition to that, during the India A tour of England he scored 299 runs including 3 fifties throughout the series, which is enough to show that he is completely at ease with the conditions in England. By adding him to the line-up, India will have a left-right opening pair and they will have an aggressive player in Pant and a more watchful player in Vijay.
