ENG vs IND 2025: Why are players wearing black armbands on opening day of Birmingham Test?

The second Test between England and India at Edgbaston began with players from both sides wearing black armbands and observing a minute’s silence in memory of former England batter Wayne Larkins. A tribute was held just before the national anthems for the ex-cricketer who passed away recently at the age of 71 after a short illness.

Larkins represented England in 13 Tests and 25 ODIs between 1979 and 1991. A Northamptonshire batting stalwart, Larkins scored over 40,000 runs across formats and hit 85 centuries during his domestic career.

England opt to bowl first

Meanwhile, England captain Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl first under cloudy skies, looking to use the early movement. Notably, Edgbaston has traditionally helped seamers early on, and England are looking to use the advantage after a crucial win in the first Test at Headingley. The hosts have announced an unchanged XI. This is the first time since 2017 that England have fielded the same XI in the first two Tests of a home series. 

India rest Jasprit Bumrah

India, trailing 0-1 in the five-match series, made three changes to their playing XI. The most notable absence was that of star pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who has been rested as part of workload management. Despite an eight-day break between the first and second Tests, the Indian team management decided to rest Bumrah. The visitors have added Akash Deep in place of Bumrah. Also dropped from the side were Shardul Thakur and Sai Sudharsan, making way for Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington Sundar, respectively. 

Playing XIs

England

Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (C), Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.

India

Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Shubman Gill (C), Rishabh Pant (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.