The second Test of the ongoing five-match series between India and England is taking place at Edgbaston in Birmingham. India and England players are wearing black armbands on Day 1 of the 2nd Test in the memory of former England, Northamptonshire, and Durham cricketer Wayne Larkins, who sadly passed away on June 28. “Ned,” as he was universally known, played 13 Tests and 25 ODIs between 1979 and 1991 and hit the winning runs in England’s famous victory over the West Indies at Sabina Park in 1990. India and England players also wore black armbands on Day 1, Day 3, and Day 5 of the first Test, which was played from June 20 to 24 in Leeds, in memory of victims of the Ahmedabad plane crash, David Lawrence and Dilip Doshi, respectively. Wayne Larkins’ record for England Larkins played 13 Tests and 25 ODIs for England from 1979 to 1991 and scored 493 and 591 runs, respectively. He made his international debut against New Zealand during an ODI match played in Manchester on June 20, 1979, and his last match (ODI) as an English player was against Australia in Melbourne on January 10, 1991. England to bowl first England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss on Wednesday (July 2) and opted to bowl first. England are playing with the same team that won the series opener in Leeds by 5 wickets, whereas Indian team management have made three changes to the playing XI for the second match. World No. 1 Test bowler Jasprit Bumrah, left-handed batter B Sai Sudharsan, and fast-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur are not playing in the 2nd Test. They are replaced by Akash Deep, Washington Sundar, and Nitish Kumar Reddy. Bumrah, who was India’s best bowler in the series opener played at Headingley from June 20 to 24, has been rested for the Edgbaston Test as part of workload management and will play in the third Test at Lord’s. The third Test of the ongoing five-match series between India and England will be played at the Home of Cricket from July 10 to 14. Playing XIs India: 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: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (C), Jamie Smith (WK), Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir