Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra wants England to add James Anderson to their playing XI for the second Test against India. The second Test of the five-match series will be played in Visakhapatnam from Friday, February 2. Mark Wood, Jack Leach, Tom Hartley, and Rehan Ahmed were the four specialist bowlers in their playing XI where they registered a 28-run win as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “They (England) are saying they will play all four spinners, that they don’t want to play Mark Wood or James Anderson. Now (Shoaib) Basheer is also available. They can play him as well. So they will have a lot of bowling options. I still feel they should play James Anderson for sure because you need a little control and none of their spinners has the ability to provide control on a good surface. In such a case, James Anderson can give you a five-over spell and then a four-over spell and concede only eight or nine runs.”

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Aakash Chopra also stated that England might need a pace bowler in their attack, especially on the first day. He said: “There is another thing as well. You get to bowl first at times and if you go with only spin, at some stage you will feel that the ball has gotten old and you should be able to get some reverse swing. That won’t happen if you don’t play a single fast bowler.”

Meanwhile, Jack Leach has been ruled out of the second Test in Visakhapatnam due to a knee injury. England won’t be able to field four specialist spinners in such a situation and would have to play a pacer if they want to go with a four-pronged attack.

“Wood also said that Bumrah didn’t do a good thing. He bowled so well that people said Wood is a useless bowler. He is not that useless but he looked slightly pale in front of Jasprit Bumrah’s quality,” Aakash Chopra concluded.