India vs England, 2nd Test: Virat Kohli elects to bat in Chennai; Axar Patel debuts, Kuldeep, Siraj IN

Chennai, February 13: India captain Virat Kohli won a crucial toss and there was a no brainer as he opted to bat first in the second Test against England on Saturday (February 13) at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

As expected, India made three changes to their playing XI with Axar Patel getting his debut cap. Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Nadeem have been rested in what is termed as a must-win game for the hosts who are 0-1 down in the series. Kuldeep Yadav finally makes his comeback while Mohammed Siraj replaces Bumrah. Siraj and Ishant Sharma will be taking care of the pace attack while Kuldeep, Axar and R Ashwin will be the three spinners on the Indian side.

England - on the other hand - have rested pacers Jofra Archer and James Anderson along with spinner Dominic Bess. Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler has also been rested by the tourists. Olly Stone, Stuart Broad, Moeen Ali and Ben Foakes (wicketkeeper) have been included in the playing XI by the tourists. Stone - who is playing his second Test - has replaced Archer - who suffered an injury.

After winning the toss, India captain Kohli said, "It's a good wicket. Day 1 is going to be good for batting. We expect it to slow down from Day 2 onwards. It's a good toss to win, we need to put runs on the board. There is a reason why we played the combination in the last game because Axar was injured.

"Unfortunately, Washington (Sundar) even after doing well misses out. Kuldeep Yadav replaces him. Nadeem makes way for Axar. Jasprit Bumrah has been rested for this game. We need to manage his workload. Mohammad Siraj comes in for him and he brings good variety. It's not that we haven't beaten them in England. You shouldn't be shocked or surprised if you get defeated at home. It's important to put things into the right perspective. It all comes down to mindset, everyone wants to win everywhere and that's the kind of competitive cricket we play. It's exciting to be a part of it."

Talking about his team's playing XI and strategy England captain, Joe Root said, "We would have batted first as well. We gotta try and take early wickets. Hopefully, we can make some inroads this morning. With Jimmy, we are making sure he gets as much cricket as possible. With the last two games, it gives him the best chance to be ready. Coming to this surface, We are trying to find the right balance and attack that we think is going to take 20 wickets. We scored big first-innings runs in the last game. it will be a different challenge here. We are full of confidence and have done the hard work. Chris Woakes is the one to miss out."

Playing XIs:

England: Rory Burns, Dominic Sibley, Daniel Lawrence, Joe Root(c), Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, Ben Foakes(w), Moeen Ali, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, Olly Stone.

India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Siraj.