Geo Sports

India win toss, put England into bat in 2nd Test

NOTTINGHAM: India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to field against England in the second Test at Trent Bridge here on Friday. England, 1-0 up in the four-match series, made one change to the side that won the first Test by 196 runs at Lord's on Monday. Yorkshire seamer Tim Bresnan replaced fast bowler Chris Tremlett, who was ruled out with a hamstring problem. This is Bresnan's eighth Test match and first since he featured in the climax of England's 3-1 Ashes series win against Australia in Sydney in January. That meant there was no place in the side for fast bowler Steven Finn after the Middlesex paceman received a late call-up into the squad Thursday. India were forced into making two changes. Fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth came in for left-arm quick Zaheer Khan, who had not recovered after breaking down early at Lord's with a hamstring problem. India also had to rejig their batting order after opener Gautam Gambhir, hit on the elbow fielding at short leg at Lord's, was deemed unfit. Yuvraj Singh took his place with Rahul Dravid, as he did in the second innings at Lord's, set to open the innings alongside Abhinav Mukund. India's Sachin Tendulkar came into this match still needing one more century to become the first batsman to score a hundred international hundreds after making 34 and 12 at Lord's. Tendulkar's 51 hundreds in Tests and 48 in one-day internationals are both world records. England will replace India at the top of the ICC's World Test Championship if they win this series by 2-0 or better. Teams England: Andrew Strauss (captain), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior (wk), Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, James Anderson India: Abhinav Mukund, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Venkatsai Laxman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/wk), Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma Umpires: Asad Rauf (PAK) and Marais Erasmus (SA), TV umpire: Billy Bowden (NZ) Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SL)