Team India is all set for the second test match, and they are ready to bounce back after the first test defeat. And after England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bat first, players came to pay tribute to a former England player. They were seen wearing black armbands, which made fans curious who they are tributing today.
Both teams and the fans gave a huge cheer and clapped together to remember former England cricketer Wayne Larkins, who died at the age of 71 recently.
India vs England: Black Armbands Worn for Wayne Larkins, Not for Plane Crash
Some people thought the players were wearing black armbands for the Ahmedabad plane crash. But it was actually to honour Larkins, who died on June 28 after being sick for a short time.
Larkins played in 13 Tests and 25 ODIs for England. He was also a part of the team that played in the 1979 World Cup final.
India vs England: Wayne Larkins’ Best Moments for England
That was only his seventh Test match. He didn’t play much in between because he was banned for joining a rebel tour to South Africa in 1982. The ban lasted for three years and stopped him from playing more international matches.
India vs England: Wayne Larkins Shines in County Cricket
Larkins mostly played for Northamptonshire in domestic cricket. He was a big star there and played over 700 matches. Later, he also played for Durham before retiring.
In his career, he made more than 40,000 runs with 85 centuries. He was exceptional from 1978 to 1985, he hit almost 1,000 runs every year. In the year 1983, he played his career-best innings of 236 runs against Derbyshire and 252 runs against Glamorgan in domestic cricket. However, he still failed to return to the national team because he was still banned.
India have made three changes in their playing XI as they have brought in Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, and Akash Deep in place of Shardul Thakur, Sai Sudarshan and Jasprit Bumrah, respectively.
On the other hand, the Three Lions have made no changes in their line-up.
After winning the toss, Stokes said,”We’re going to bowl. Overhead conditions favour it. Did you consider everything (bringing Archer into the squad?). Very good team performance last week, we’re confident. You understand the conditions better as you go deeper into the Test. Brains and me and Baz are not three things you put together. Great run chase, great Test to be part of, great start to the series. Last week is last week, need to concentrate on this week.”
Indian captain Shubman Gill said, “Would’ve bowled first as well. If there’s anything in the wicket, it’s on the first day. Three changes – Reddy, Washi and Akash Deep come in. No Bumrah. Just to manage his workload. We did get a good break, and this is an important match for us. But the third Test being at Lord’s, we think there’ll be more in that pitch, so we’ll use him there. We were tempted to play Kuldeep, but looking at the last match, our lower order didn’t do well, so we decided to add some depth to the batting.”
Teams:
India (Playing XI): 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.
England (Playing XI): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.
(With Inputs From ANI)
ALSO READ: India vs England, 2nd Test: Shubman Gill Reveals Why Washington Sundar Was Chosen Over Kuldeep Yadav
