Chris Woakes to replace Ben Stokes, Dawid Malan axed after poor performance

England Cricket announced the 13 member squad for the second Test against India at Lord's and expectedly Stokes was missing from the list. Stokes has to attend his trial on a criminal charge of affray, which will start in Bristol on Monday. He will be replaced by all-rounder Chris Woakes for the Test but it is unlikely that Stokes won't be back for the third Test. 

Dawid Malan, on the other hand, has been dropped from the team because of his poor performance at Edgbaston. His bad run of form has actually continued for the last five Test innings where he has managed to score just 74 runs. To make things worse, he also dropped Virat Kohli twice in the slips as the Indian skipper went on to add 149 runs to his team's total in the first innings.

Bowlers Moeen Ali and Jamie Porter have been retained in the Test team after they were left out of England's XI in Birmingham. Ollie Pope and Sam Curran has been playing exceptionally well this season.

Pope has made 684 runs for the Championship leaders Surrey with a fantastic average of 85.50, including three centuries and a score of 158 not out. He also made an unbeaten 50 for the England Lions as they won in a 253 run chase over India A in a first class fixture at Worcester in July 2018. 

“Ollie Pope has made an exceptional start to his first-class career. He has reached a 1000 first-class runs in just 15 matches and is the first division's stand-off batsman this season with 684 runs at 85. The selection panel believes that Ollie's performances and character suggest he is well suited to international cricket,” Ed Smith told AFP.

“Dawid has not found his best rhythm this season, and it may be that his game is better suited to overseas conditions. Ben Stokes is unavailable, but Chris Woakes, with some extra matches and practices under his belt, can now return to the England squad after injury."