The five-match India-England series seems destined to be affected by rain. Virat Kohli’s side had the golden opportunity to win the first Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, needing 157 to win on the final day with nine wickets in hand but rain washed out entire Day 5 without a ball being bowled as the game finished in a draw.
Both teams now head to the home of cricket – Lord’s in London – for the second Test which gets underway on Thursday (August 12). It seems rain has followed the Indian team to London as well with the Met department predicting another spell of rain on the opening day of the second Test.
However, unlike Nottingham, rain is not likely to washout the entire day’s play at Lord’s and cricket fans can look forward to some thrilling action. Thursday morning in London is expected to be cloudy with 70 per cent cloud cover and humidity above 75 per cent as well. A spell of rain can be expected in the morning with temperatures hovering around 17 degrees.
The weather is likely to clear by afternoon at Lord’s with a maximum temperature of 23 degrees expected on the day. If India bat first in the second Test, England paceman James Anderson can expect plenty of assistance thanks to the heavy overhead atmosphere.
Overall, the weather prediction of London seems to be promising full day’s play on the first day of the 2nd Test. Meanwhile, both teams have experienced massive injury blows. India’s Shardul Thakur has been ruled out of the second Test due to a hamstring injury.
ENG vs IND Probable Playing XIs
England: Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Joe Root (c), Jonny Bairstow, Dan Lawrence, Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler, Ollie Robinson, Sam Curran, James Anderson
India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
ENG v IND Squads
England squad: Joe Root (capt), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Dom Bess, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Dom Sibley, Mark Wood.
India Squad: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Axar Patel, Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, Abhimanyu Easwaran
