India vs England: Joe Root announces 12th man squad for second Test

After scripting a fabulous victory in the highly anticipated first Test at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, England will be soaring on high confidence in the second Test match at the same venue.

On the eve of second Test England skipper Joe Root announces a 12 man squad for the upcoming encounter and left fans surprised with few decisions.

As the top 6 will remain the same for the second Test match who featured in the first match with the inclusion of Rory Burns, Dominic Sibley, Daniel Lawrence, Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Ollie Pope, but there is some massive changes in the lower half of the line up.

Ben Foakes will be featuring in the second Test in absence of Butler who headed home after playing first match as the visitors are relying on rotation policy due to their hectic schedule in entire 2021.

In his short Test career, Foakes has represented the Englishmen in 5 games scoring 332 runs at an average of 41.5 and strike rate of 53.8.

The choice which irked fans is related to Dominic Bess replaced  with Moeen Ali. As  Bess took important wickets of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant and Ajinkya Rahane in India first innings followed by scalping the wicket of Washington Sundar in the last innings.

As far as the pace attack is concerned, England were dealt with a massive blow on Thursday, February 11 as their speed merchant Jofra Archer suffered an arm injury and didn’t feature in the practice session ahead of second Test match.

As a result they have included Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Olly Stone in the 12 member squad for the upcoming encounter against Men in Blue.

As England relying on the rotation policy rested James Anderson for the third test which will be played with pink ball in a day-night game in Ahmedabad.