Akash Deep or Arshdeep Singh - Who Replaces Jasprit Bumrah in Playing XI During 2nd Test at Birmingham?

England vs India: We are roughly a little over 24 hours away from the start of the second Test at Birmingham. With India desperately looking for a win to square it up, there is massive speculation over who plays and who misses out. What will be India's final XI? But all said and done, the focus is around ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah's availability. Will he play or will he be rested? 

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Most reckon that Bumrah may be rested and if that is the case, who replaces him? The two names that are doing the rounds and is likely to replace him are Akash Deep and Arshdeep Singh. 

Arshdeep or Akash Deep For Bumrah? 

In all likelyhood, it will be Akash Deep as he is ahead of Arshdeep Singh in the pecking order. Akash is above Arshdeep in the pecking order because the former has already made his debut. Akash Deep made his Test debut during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier in the year. 

"If Bumrah is not there, it starts a chain of thoughts as to what you would do. You have two options in the form of Akash Deep and Arshdeep. There will be a temptation to play Arshdeep because you get a left-arm option. Akash Deep is ahead of Arshdeep in the pecking order because he was a part of the BGT (Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25) and has already made his debut," former India cricketer Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

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Will Shardul Thakur be Retained? 

After failing with the bat in both his outings at Headingley, it would be interesting to see if Thakur can hold onto his spot in the XI or not. As per reports, he had a light training session on Monday, whereas Nitish Kumar Reddy went allout. 

There is a possibility that Reddy replaces Thakur.