England upset the applecart when they came from a mile back to win the opening Test match against India last week and when the two sides meet for the second game of the five in Visakhapatnam on Friday, they have the chance to take a huge step towards a famous series win.
India will know that they dropped the opening match of the series the last time England were here for a Test series and they turned it around to win 3-1 so they won’t be panicking yet but they certainly will not want to go 2-0 down in the series.
India
India could be forgiven for wondering what happened in that opening match. For much of the opening three days of it they were well in control of the situation but this England side hang around and when you don’t finish them off they will find a way to get back in and cause problems. It is pretty much unheard of for India to cough up a near 200 run lead after the first innings of a home match and lose fairly tamely in the end.
India will want their bowlers to be a lot more ruthless in this match, especially if they get themselves into a good position. I don’t think there is any need for India to panic just yet – they are still easily the better of these two teams and in their own conditions they are probably still favourites for the series but that will all change if they come up short here. India had a lot of starts in both innings in the first Test but never really had that person to put up the huge score that would have batted England fully out of the game.
England
England will be absolutely delighted with the way the first game played out. They were written off everywhere heading into the series. Many judges would have had them down as losing the series 5-0 and not taking very long to do it. They went in with an inexperienced attack that those outside the England camp thought would be cannon fodder but this England side and setup know exactly what they are doing and the faith they have in their players, coupled with a captain who is simply brilliant, gives them a chance.
We know they are a team who are happy to live on the edge but with their risks comes a good deal of thinking and Ollie Pope used that to his advantage to completely turn the opening game on its head. You would imagine that the bowlers who bowled England to victory will carry extra confidence into this game with them and Pope has shown he can tame this Indian attack so if he can get a bit more support with the bat then England should be in a decent position.
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Team News
India will be forced into two changes for this match as KL Rahul and Ravi Jadeja have been ruled out. Rajat Patidar looks like he will replace Rahul while Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav are in line to come in for Jadeja.
England have confirmed their side and they are making two changes to their XI. They were forced into one as Jack Leach was ruled out with injury. Shoaib Bashir will make his debut in place of him while Jimmy Anderson will replace Mark Wood.
Betting
Given that India have been forced into a couple of changes I don’t really want to get involved in the match betting before a ball is bowled in this one. I’m not convinced that England have it in them to repeat what they did in that opening game and we need to see how India go without Rahul and Jadeja before we get stuck into them. Then there is the pitch. Will India produce a Bunsen burner or will it be good for batting in the early stages?
I suspect it will be the latter now that India have lost a spinner and England showed that they can handle the sharp spin that was on offer in Hyderabad. That makes me think that the boundaries line for this match is a little on the low side, especially as there were 148 of them in that first game and this is a much smaller ground then Hyderabad was. We know that England will be aggressive with the bat but they don’t mind going for boundaries with the ball in the search for wickets and England have another inexperienced spinner on show in this match so there is enough there to suggest the batters can make hay again. This pitch might deteriorate later in the game but the pictures I’ve seen suggest it is going to stay flat for the first few days. I don’t see a significant drop off in the boundaries so I’ll play the over here.
Tips
Back Over 127.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
