After a wonderful match to open up the series and just over a week or so to reflect on what went right and wrong, England and India renew battle at Edgbaston on Wednesday when the second Test of five gets underway at the Birmingham venue.
England powered their way to victory in the opening game at Headingley and the home side have the chance to go two up with three to play with another win here. India will be keen to win here and take the series to Lord’s all square at one win each.
England
England took everyone by surprise when they chose to bowl in the opening game of the series given the clear skies and the hot temperatures but they clearly knew what they were doing. It took Ben Stokes’ men a day to get into the contest and they rode their luck at times but when push came to shove they delivered when it really mattered and in the end you would have to suggest that they won the game with plenty in hand, which bodes well for the rest of the series.
The good thing for England is that they generally improve into a series and given that the domestic cricket in the lead up to the opening game was T20 stuff you would imagine that would be the case here too. England will be keen to make more of the new ball at Edgbaston but to be fair to them there isn’t really much else that they have to really improve on from that opening game so they are in a very good position heading into this second match.
India
I would imagine that India are still wondering how they lost the opening game given the positions that they got themselves into where they could completely dominate it. They had England where they wanted them in their batting first innings, their bowling first innings and their second dig with the bat but sloppy periods of play cost them dearly and allowed England to hang around and in the end the Indians were forced to pay the price.
If India are going to level the series then they have to be a lot more ruthless in this game than they were in the opening one. We saw that they have the artillery to get into good positions but it won’t make a difference if they pass up those opportunities again. The one thing which would really concern me from that opening game if I was in their camp would be that Shubman Gill looked every bit the inexperienced captain that he is at this level and he needs to up his game in the field.
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Team News
As ever England have named their side well in advance of the match beginning with the headline news being that they have picked an unchanged XI from the first game, which means that the return of Jofra Archer will have to wait one more week at least.
India are yet to confirm their team so all eyes will be on whether Jasprit Bumrah plays here or whether India are true to their word about him only playing three matches. If he is replaced the talk is a second spinner will come in for him.
Betting
There is no secret to how this series is going to be played. It is going to be all out aggression with the bat and that suits England just fine. There were 219 boundaries in the Headingley match and I’m expecting the ball to be hit the boundary on a number of occasions here, not least because the boundaries at Edgbaston are more accessible since the new stands went in. The weather is perfect for the opening three days of this match and hardly terrible for the last two and therefore the boundaries should flow again. Shubman Gill chased the ball around in the field in the last game while Ben Stokes is happy to give boundaries away to chase wickets. I expect over 142.5 boundaries here.
Jamie Smith looked good with the bat in the first Test with scores of 40 and 44* and while he would have wanted to kick on and make a big score with the bat in the first innings, there is plenty of time for that to come and given that this is his home ground in The Hundred, it might be that this is the place he produces it. Smith won’t be facing the new ball but if that has done some damage he could be on a repair job but given how quickly that he scores, there is enough batting below him to chase down any score that is posted. At 10/1 he feels value in the top England batting market for the first innings.
Tips
Back Over 142.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
Back J.Smith Top England 1st Inns Batter for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with Boylesports
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