India vs England 2nd Test: Home side brings in Saqib Mahmood as cover; Dom Bess leaves squad

London, August 11: England have added Lancashire pacer Saqib Mahmood as cover for the second Test against India, starting at the Lord's from Thursday (August 12). In all likelihood, Saqib could be a cover for pacer Stuart Broad, who is struggling with a calf niggle.

A whatsapp message from England media manager from London confirmed this, and he also added that spinner Dom Bess will leave the bio-bubble and will return to Yorkshire.

Saqib made his England debut in 2019 in a T20I match against New Zealand at Wellington, while he made his ODI debut for England a year later against South Africa at Johannesburg.

So far, the 24-year-old Saqib has played 9 T20Is and took 7 wickets and from 7 ODIs he has taken 14 wickets.

The first Test between India and England might have ended in a draw after rain played
spoilsport on the final day of the match, but it is fair to say that the visitors hold the upper hand going into the second match of the series, beginning on Thursday (August 12) at the Lord's Cricket Ground.

The Virat Kohli-led side needed 157 runs to win on the final day, with nine wickets in hand, but rain played spoilsport and as a result, the series stands level at 0-0. In the first Test, India went in with four-seamers (Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur) and one spinner (Ravindra Jadeja).

However, a few eyebrows were raised when Ashwin did not feature in the playing XI even when he had played a county game before the first Test. While the bowling attack rose to the challenge and didn't let the English batsmen settle down, the same cannot be said of the batting unit.

India's batting performance in the first innings of the opening game left a lot to be desired. Openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul stitched a 97-run stand, but the visitors failed to capitalise.

It will also be interesting to see how the battle between India skipper Virat Kohli and England's pace spearhead James Anderson (/topic/james-anderson) plays out. It was 1-0 to Anderson in the first Test as he dismissed Kohli for a golden duck.

But one can expect Kohli to come back hard as the battle between the two has over the years managed to grab headlines and it is one of the most exciting spectacles in the longest format.

A quality performance at the Home of Cricket is definitely something that the India skipper would be aiming for.