"You are fearing your batting" - Former opener slams India's team combination for ENG vs IND 2025 2nd Test

Former India opener Navjot Singh Sidhu has slammed the team's combination for the second Test against England on Wednesday, July 2. The game is being played at Edgbaston in Birmingham.

Navjot Singh Sidhu opined that India's combination for the second Test reflected fear. He claimed that the visitors weren't confident in their batting and thus were compromising on their bowling instead. He said on Star Sports:

"There is only one thing reflecting in this playing XI. Fear. You are fearing your batting, that's why you are compromising on your bowling. This has been happening since ages. In order to deepen the batting you are not playing your best bowlers who can pick five wickets."

India made three changes for the second Test, bringing in Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Akash Deep for Sai Sudharsan, Shardul Thakur and Jasprit Bumrah, respectively. Notably, Kuldeep Yadav was left out once again.

"Washington Sundar did not bowl a single ball in the first innings in Sydney despite playing him. I will back this team, but I will not back a mindset that reflects fear and fear of failure. It's a paradox. It shows that you have pressed the panic button. When you pick a team out of fear, fear breeds faster than rabbits. I feel there is a negative mindset here," Sidhu added.

As far as the game is concerned, England won the toss and asked the visitors to bat first on the opening day.

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India make a solid start despite losing KL Rahul early

Meanwhile, India have made a solid start to their innings after being asked to bat first. They lost opener KL Rahul, who had scored a hundred in the previous Test, early this time around. Rahul made just two runs from 26 balls before being dismissed with the score at 15/1.

However, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Karun Nair have helped India recover from the early blow. The two have put up a brilliant partnership to take the hosts to 91/1 after 22 overs at the time of writing.

Moreover, Jaiswal had completed yet another half century, and was unbeaten on 58 off just 62 balls with 11 boundaries. Karun Nair was unbeaten on 29 off 46 on the other end.