England’s gun fast bowler Mark Wood reckons India can not afford to trail by 2-0 in the five-match Test and they must play Jasprit Bumrah in the second Test against England. Bumrah is expected to be rested for the second Test to manage his workload.

Meanwhile, Bumrah was the pick of the Indian bowlers in the opening Test as he returned with impressive figures of 5-83 in the first innings. But Bumrah went wicketless in the second innings, which was a tad surprising.

It has been pre-decided by the team management that Bumrah will play only three out of the five Test matches against England.

Mark Wood said on Sky Sports, “I think he will play both (Edgbaston and Lord’s). They can’t afford to go 0-2 down and there is no way he is saying I am not playing at Lord’s. He will want to play both games. Let’s just say India win the next one and it’s 1-1, I still think they’ll want him to make the difference to get them ahead. Every overseas bowler wants to get on that board and he’ll be the same.”

On the other hand, former England opener and captain Michael Atherton concurred with Wood and said Bumrah got to play at Edgbaston.

“They’ve got a decision to make over Bumrah first of all, because every player from overseas wants to play in the Lord’s Test. He’s got to play Edgbaston, he’s got to play the next game. In cricketing terms, he should certainly play Edgbaston and I’ll say think carefully about Old Trafford because that’s the kind of ground where pace and reverse swing is very important but every cricketer wants to play at Lord’s and get on that honors board,” said Atherton (via the aforementioned source).

The second Test match between India and England will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham from July 2nd onwards.