Reports | Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant might feature in third Test at Trent Bridge

India were clearly second best, that too by miles, as they lost to a superior England team by an innings and 159 runs at the second Test at Lord’s. This meant that the visitors now trailed Joe Root & Co. by 2-0 in the five-match Test series after they suffered a narrow 31-run loss in the opener at Edgbaston at the start of the month.

While the bulk of India’s problem lay in their batting woes, a few tweaks in the bowling attack might just help Virat Kohli & Co. to put some added pressure on the high-flying English batsmen. Jasprit Bumrah, who has not featured in England up until now, has been declared available to feature in the third Test at Trent Bridge as per recent reports in England. The pacer was said to be ‘bowling fit’ ahead of the second Test at Lord’s itself, but the management thought it would be better to rest the youngster and avoid a situation similar to that of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar in the third ODI.

Kuldeep Yadav, who was given a chance at Lord’s, will be the one to most likely drop to the bench if Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli opt to include Bumrah in the matchday squad. The youngster has been out of the team due to a finger injury that he suffered against Ireland in the T20I last month. Bumrah made his Test debut in January on South African tour earlier this year where he impressed with 14 wickets in three Tests at an average of 25.21.

In the batting department, the young and flamboyant Rishabh Pant looked likely to get the nod in place of the misfiring Dinesh Karthik for the third Test. Karthik has not been good enough in the two games that he played in and has scored 0, 20, 1 and 0 across four innings in England and will pave the way for Pant who has a first-class average of 54.50 with four centuries and eight fifties.

Two years ago, DD batsman - Pant, still aged just 19, became the fourth youngest triple-centurion in first-class history while he played for Delhi in Ranji Trophy. More recently, while touring with India A, he notched up impressive scores against England Lions and West Indies A last month.