2 Must-win Changes in Team India Playing 11 for 2nd Test vs England

June 25, 2025 Abhay Kothari Arshdeep Singh, Cricgasm, Cricket, Cricket News, Dhruv Jurel, England Cricket Team, Harshit Rana, India Cricket Team, India vs England, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Mohammed Siraj, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Team India, Test Cricket, Yashasvi Jaiswal 6 min read

2 important changes expected in India vs England 2025 Birmingham 2nd Test best predicted playing 11 for both teams.

It’s been only a day, but Team India’s shocking loss against England in the 1st Test match is still lingering around my mind. It’s difficult to digest, but even after the Indian batters scored 5 centuries in a Test match, the India team still ended up on the losing side. It wasn’t a one-sided victory by any means as England needed a handsome 370+ runs to win a Test match, and that too on the final day, but ending on the losing side is a big heartbreak.

It wasn’t as if India played bad cricket. The overall performance was better than expected, given that the Indian team was transitioning into a new era. But there were three major bummers from Team India’s side, and unless they are rectified, the Indian team will find it extremely difficult to make a comeback. But what are those three areas of improvement? Well, those are India’s horrible batting depth, lacklustre pace bowling (Bumrah aside), and fielding.

If India have to win the 2nd Test match, 2 of these three issues need to be rectified. If not, it will once again be a long road for Team India with no sight of the destination. But how do India rectify these mistakes? While fielding is an area which India can certainly improve in the next match, Batting depth vs lacklustre pace bowling are oxymorons. We can’t achieve both together at the moment, and one of these two will still be compromised in the 2nd Test match.

India vs England 2025 Key Match Details

Series: India Tour of England 2025

Match Type: India vs England 2nd Test 2025

Where: Birmingham, England

When: July 2-6, 2025, 3:30 pm IST

India vs England 2025 Official Test Squad and Players List for Indian Team

Batters: Abhimanyu Easwaran, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c) & Yashasvi Jaiswal

Wicket-keepers: Dhruv Jurel & Rishabh Pant (vc)

All-rounders: Nitish Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja & Washington Sundar

Bowlers: Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna & Shardul Thakur

If we observe the first Test match, the Indian team’s bowling was a bigger issue than India’s batting depth. India’s top 5 did more than what was expected of them. Scoring 5 centuries in 2 innings isn’t a joke, and in both innings, India’s overall batting performance was above par. One can argue about the performance of the tail, where we lost 5-6 wickets for just 30 runs in both innings, but we have bigger issues at hand than this.

Given a target of 370 runs for the final day, you would fancy the bowling team to win the contest without a doubt. But that was not the case. India’s bowling lacked firepower, and barring Bumrah, who gave his heart out, there was hardly any support from the other end. The likes of Prasidh, Shardul, Siraj, and even Jadeja were smashed left, right and centre. All three pacers lacked the discipline to bowl in the right channels.

The inability to pick 20 wickets in a Test match was the major reason why India lost. Hence, if any, the first thing we need to correct is our pace bowling, and unfortunately, dropping Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna is the only way to go about it in the 2nd Test match. Alongside Siraj, who wasn’t effective himself, Prasidh and Shardul leaked runs to eternity. These are ominous signs for any fast bowler when we talk about Test matches.

Changes in Pace Bowling

So, while we cannot improve batting depth and pace bowling together, we will have to keep the same tail still as we had before, as our batters are still doing the job, but have Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, our best options, in place of Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur. While Harshit and Arshdeep aren’t great bowlers themselves, India will have to make this change to be able to have a different strategic approach.

Other than this change, India should continue with the same batting lineup that we saw in the 1st Test match. Sai and Karun may not have had a big impact in the 1st Test match, but they should be persisted for the 2nd Test match at the least. We can see how Sai and Karun go about their batting in the 2nd Test match, and then the Indian team can take a call if Karun and Sai both do not impress in the 2nd Test match.