Revealed: Why Mohammed Siraj is not playing today's match vs England?

As Team India aims to draw level in the ongoing five-match Test series, they have decided against playing Mohammed Siraj in the second Test at Visakhapatnam. The Rohit Sharma-led side will be desperate to bounce back after the embarrassing defeat in the series-opener in Hyderabad last week.

Despite taking a huge lead of 190 runs after the first innings, the hosts failed to win the Test. India had England in big trouble in the second innings as well, reducing the visitors to 163 for 5 before Ollie Pope’s stunning century rescued the tourists.

Pope scored 196 runs and England managed to recover, posting a big total of 420 runs to set India a target of 231. In reply, India were bowled out for 202 runs with left-arm spinner Tom Hartley taking 7 wickets. Rohit Sharma (39) was the only batsman who managed to touch the 30-run mark in the poor batting display.

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Mohammed Siraj not in India playing XI:

In the wake of the defeat in the series opener, Team India have made several changes to the playing XI. While they were forced to make two changes due to injuries, they also decided against retaining Mohammed Siraj in the playing XI.

Confirming the news at the toss, captain Rohit Sharma insisted that Mohammed Siraj was rested for the game and has been replaced by Mukesh Kumar. Mohammed Siraj hardly got the chance to bowl in the first Test as the hosts relied heavily on the spinners.

In the first innings, he bowled 4 overs and conceded 28 runs before conceding 22 runs in 7 overs in the second innings. He failed to pick up any wickets in the game. The other two changes are Kuldeep Yadav and Rajat Patidar replacing Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul respectively.

“We’ll bat first. Looks a good pitch, the pitch will do its thing, we need to play good cricket. What happened in Hyderabad is history, we need to move on. We have spoken on things we need to do, now we need to execute on our plans. I thought we batted well in the first innings, but didn’t have the same intent. Similarly, in the second innings with the bowl there was a brilliant knock by Ollie Pope,” Rohit Sharma said at the toss.

“Injuries are part and parcel of the game, but that’s why we have the guys sitting on the bench. Two unforced changes (meant forced) – Jadeja and KL miss out, and Siraj has been rested. We’ve got Mukesh, Kuldeep, and Rajat Patidar making his debut,” he added.

India Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mukesh Kumar