England vs India, 2nd Test: 5 Indian players who need to step up and deliver for the side

Players come and go in Indian cricket, but one thing seems constant: playing catch up game in Test series. For the nth time, India find themselves trailing in a bilateral rubber and have all to play for heading into the second Test match at the Home of Cricket, starting on Thursday.

Those who saw the first game will tell you that with the bat in hand, India had one performer fighting his way through trouble and keeping the hopes alive for his side. Virat Kohli was everywhere when India batted and 'Kohli vs England' became the talk of the town as the game progressed.

The Indian bowlers, especially the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ishant Sharma were splendid during the course of the game and heading to London, the management will have more headaches about the batsmen than the bowlers.

Here are five players who will need to step up and deliver in the second Test at Lord's:

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KL Rahul

Prior to the first Test, most people wanted KL Rahul in their playing XI. The right-hander has caught everybody's attention thanks to his recent run of form and seemed like a sure shot choice in the XI.

He did play at Edgbaston, not as an opener but as the Number 3 and did not get going in either innings, falling for 4 and 13 respectively.

There is a sense which the common folk gets that Rahul seems to have the confidence of the team management and purely based on that, one could assume that the right-hander would get another chance at Lord's.

If he harbors hope of playing beyond Lord's, he will need to grab the opportunity which comes his way in that game.

Umesh Yadav

Yadav didn't quite look in rhythm in the first Test

Arguably India's most improved fast bowler in the last few years, Umesh Yadav had an off game at Edgbaston. He picked up one wicket in the first innings, along with conceding 56 runs in 17 overs.

Those figures perhaps prompted Virat Kohli to use him as the second change bowler in the second innings and he returned with better figures, giving away 20 runs in 7 overs along with two wickets.

With Bhuvneshwar Kumar out, you would think that Yadav would get another chance at Lord's and he will need to show he is a better bowler than what those numbers suggest in the second Test.

Dinesh Karthik

Karthik's bat did very little talking in the first Test

With Wriddiman Saha out for a large part of this series, Dinesh Karthik was banked upon by the management to do the job in his place. For those who know Karthik well, they would tell you that he has always been more of a batsman-keeper than keeper-batsman and so India were to have a bit more depth in that area.

However, in the Edgbaston Test, it turned out to be the other way around. The Tamil Nadu cricketer seemed reliable with the gloves in hand, but could not stand up with the bat, especially in the second innings when Kohli needed someone to stand by his side during the chase.

While one can say with some certainty that he would keep his place for the second Test, a poor outing again could mean the management wanting to think about possibly bringing in Rishab Pant for the rest of the series.

Murali Vijay

The Monk can do much better than what he did at Edgbaston

The opener, who plays only the longest format of the game these days, was expected to do better than what he did in the Edgbaston Test, where he made scores of 20 and 6, respectively.

A lot more was expected out of him because, on previous tours, Vijay has been India's best Test batsman, adapting to the conditions better than others and delivering the results with the bat.

In the four-day gap, he could try and look at some of those videos and implement what he did well there, in the second Test at Lord's.

Ajinkya Rahane

Can the real Ajinkya Rahane please stand up at Lord's?

In Computer Science terms, one can say that Ajinkya Rahane is that cricketer in the Indian team who aces Java but flunks C programming, purely because of the way in which has done so well in overseas conditions but failed to score at home.

However, there was a rare blip in that comparison in the first Test, when he made 15 and 2 in the two innings of the game.

Rahane's role in the side is vital as he and Kohli are expected to carry the burden in the middle-order and hopefully, the batsman we know turns up at Lord's, a ground he will have fond memories of due to his century here, four years ago against the same opposition.