Following the first successful match in the five-Test series, Chris Woakes- the most senior member of the England pace attack- shared his expectations about the surface at Edgbaston being a good one to bat.
The pitch had a decent grass cover two days ahead of the second Test, but it is dry underneath the surface since there heat at the place. The grass is going to be trimmed before the toss on Wednesday, July 2 anyway.
The match might potentially be another one of those contest between the batting unit of both the teams. The bowlers from England team, including Chris Woakes, have gained a lot of confidence after they bowled out India twice in Leeds- both witnessing a collapse in the lower-order.
“There’s good weather around. So, it might be another hard week for the bowlers. But we’ll obviously look at the things that we did well last week and try to put the things that we didn’t do so well right this week,” said 36-year-old Woakes.
Woakes only got one wicket at Leeds and as a senior pacer more is expected from him. Captain Ben Stokes got the ball to move the most in the first Test while Josh Tongue was effective in cleaning up India’s tail.
The team is also missing the services of injured Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, who was expected to make a comeback at Edgbaston but has pulled out due to a family emergency.
The English team will also be missing out on Mark Woods who is injured and Jofra Archer who was set to mark his comeback to the format after 4 long years, but had to bail out due to a family emergency.
“I’ve played a lot of my England games with Jimmy (James Anderson) and Broadie (Stuart Broad). It is different not having them around,” said Woakes.
“But it’s also a great opportunity for myself and it’s good to pass on a little bit of knowledge to the younger guys who haven’t played as much Test cricket. And I am also learning from them,” he added.
England playing XI for 2nd Test against India:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (C), Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir
