India vs England predictions: Skipper Stokes can lead from the front
- India's Shubman Gill has a top score of just 36 in his last 10 innings in all formats
- England have won 14 of their 19 Tests under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum
- Recommended bet: Ben Stokes Top England Batter - 1st Innings
Ollie Pope's second-innings 196 and a seven-wicket haul from debutant spinner Tom Hartley inspired an extraordinary fightback from England in the first Test against India.
Trailing by 190 runs after the first innings, the tourists rallied to beat their hosts by 28 runs in Hyderabad, taking a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.
England know the job is far from over. They won the first Test of the 2021 series in India by 227 runs before crumbling to a 3-1 defeat but India will be without some key players as they bid to bounce back in the second Test in Vizag.
Team news
India are missing spinning all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and batsman KL Rahul due to injuries sustained in the first Test and Virat Kohli is likely to be unavailable due to personal reasons.
Batsmen Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan are hoping to make their Test debuts and spinner Kuldeep Yadav is likely to replace Jadeja.
England spinner Jack Leach is expected to be fit despite suffering a knee problem in Hyderabad.
Uncapped slow bowler Shoaib Bashir is available after receiving his visa for India and James Anderson, Gus Atkinson and Ollie Robinson are pace-bowling options if Mark Wood is left out.
The stats
India have lost only four of their last 48 home Test matches.
Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah took six wickets in the first Test while no other paceman claimed even one .
Shubman Gill has a top score of just 36 in his last 10 innings for India in all formats.
England became the first team to win a Test in India after conceding a first-innings deficit of more than 100.
The tourists have won 14 of their 19 Tests under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.
Joe Root has scored more Test runs against India than any other player in history.
Prediction
It took a monumental performance for England to beat India in Hyderabad and Rohit Sharma's men are strong favourites to square the series at 1-1 in Visakhapatnam.
However, the likely absences of Jadeja, Rahul and Kohli – as well as Shubman Gill's patchy form with the bat – boost England's chances of going 2-0 up.
A lack of belief is never a problem for a team inspired by captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum and Stokes' faith in under-fire spinner Hartley paid off in spectacular fashion in the first Test.
Before Pope and Hartley's second-innings heroics, though, England's first dig of the series was held together by a knock of 70 from Stokes when none of his teammates reached 40.
The left-hander is playing as a specialist batsman as he continues his recovery from knee surgery and he looks a big price to top-score in England's first innings at Vizag.
Stokes made 70, the highest score of the first innings, in England's 2016 Test match at the venue, having scored 128 in the opening game of that series in Rajkot.
