Wounded India look to bounce back at Lord's

Overview
England v India
Lord's, London
2nd Test
Thursday, 9 August, 10:00 GMT, 11:00 local

England came out on top at Edgbaston but only just – by 31 runs – in what was a thriller, where teams wrestled back and forth for the advantage before England finally got the better of Virat Kohli's men.

There were plenty of positives in both camps –Kohli's 149 and 51 in the game, R Ashwin's seven wickets in the match and Ishant Sharma's five-wicket haul in the second innings for India, and Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow's half-centuries, Sam Curran's all-round Player of the Match performance (87 runs and five wickets) and Ben Stokes' match-winning spell on the fourth day for England.

So, while England have the momentum and the advantage of playing at home, they will be aware that India ran them close in Birmingham and are capable of doing the same at Lord's, a venue where they won their last encounter, in 2014.

All isn't rosy for either side, though. A low-scoring match at Edgbaston meant batsmen on both sides had to counter some quality swing bowling, and barring Kohli, Root, Bairstow and Curran, not many could play a knock of significance. The most important of these, perhaps, was Curran's match-turning 65-ball 63 in the second innings, after having come in at 86/6 (effectively 100/7 with the first-innings lead) and England in a spot.

England finished on 180, setting India 194 to win – a chaseable target by all means – but the Indian batsmen faltered against some high-quality swing bowling and were bowled out for 162. The next highest score after Kohli's 51 was Hardik Pandya's 31.

England were better than India but not by much, as barring Root's 80 and Bairstow's 70, the batsmen were found wanting in the first innings. Dawid Malan has since faced the consequences of a string of low scores – 8, 20, 6, 28 and 7 in his last five innings – and some lapses in the slips as he lost his place in the team. Replacing him is the 20-year-old Ollie Pope, who will jump straight into the XI at No.4.

An improvement on the batting front will be on both sides' agenda for this game. The likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane – the core of India's batting, all of whom made low scores in Edgbaston – will have to hit form sooner rather than later, as must Alastair Cook – who was dismissed off identical deliveries by Ashwin in both innings, and Jos Buttler.

England are also without Stokes for this game as the all-rounder has a court hearing to attend, which began on Monday 6 August and is expected to last for around a week. Chris Woakes has been named Stokes' replacement but Moeen Ali could well get the nod ahead of Woakes in hot and dry conditions at Lord's. That decision will be confirmed at the toss.

India could ponder bringing in one of Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav and field a two-pronged spin attack along with Ashwin by giving a break to one of the fast bowlers. Jasprit Bumrah, who excelled in his debut Test series in South Africa, was also in contention but bowling coach Bharat Arun has ruled out his participation in the Lord's Test.

But bowling isn't much of a worry for India; batting is. Kohli scored 200 of the 436 runs that India made in the match, and India had lost half their side by 100 in both innings. While Kohli rallied the lower order along in the first innings to get India close to England's first-innings total, he might not be able do it repeatedly. The other batsmen have to come good.

Key Players

Sam Curran (England): The all-rounder impressed one and all in just his second Test and bagged the Player of the Match award. With his ability to swing the ball prodigiously and score runs lower down the order, the youngster is asset to this England side and may fill the Stokes-sized gap.

Virat Kohli (India): India will be hoping that their captain courageous comes good once again, having seen how heroically he took them within touching distance of a victory – 200 runs in the game have also propelled his erstwhile average of 13.40 in England, and he will look to build on that.

Conditions

London is expected to hot and dry owing to the heat wave in England. However, it is expected to be cool on the first day of the game and there are chances of some rain. So the team that wins the toss may prefer to field first. The pitch is expected to assist both seam and spin, as it did in Edgbaston, but is likely to be spinner-friendly and India may look to take advantage.

Squad

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Alastair Cook, Sam Curran, Keaton Jennings, Ollie Pope, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Jamie Porter

India: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, M Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur