NEW DELHI: England made two changes from the side that won the opening Test in Hyderabad with veteran pacer James Anderson coming in for Mark Wood and Shoaib Bashir replacing Jack Leach, who has been ruled out with a knee injury.
Bashir is set for England debut as the visitors named their playing XI to take on India in the second Test match, which commences on Friday at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.

Last week, during England’s exciting 28-run victory over the hosts, Leach injured his left knee while fielding. Later in the same game, he made the injury worse by bowling 10 overs with a swollen joint during the hosts’ second innings.

Ben Stokes, the captain, expressed earlier confidence that Bashir would do well on his Test debut if he was chosen to partner fellow spinners Rehan Ahmed and Tom Hartley.

“If he was to play on this tour, then the great thing he has on his side is, what is there to lose?” Stokes said.
“That is how I will be thinking about it, if he gets the chance to play: just to make sure I can give him the best experience I possibly can. Because you only play your first Test match once. If he does play, then I will be trying to make it as enjoyable and fun for him as I can,” he said.

England XI: Ben Stokes (Captain), Ben Duckett, Zak Crawley, Joe Root, Ollie Pope, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes (wk), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson