Welcome to the coverage of the second Test between England and India at Lord's on Thursday.

Captain Virat Kohli might have to seriously consider playing his best spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, while expecting a far better show from the seasoned batting line-up in the second Test.

While India were in a better position to win the first Test before heavens opened up on the fifth and final day, the first innings score of 278 was still below par as the likes of senior batsmen Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane failed with the bat.

Not to forget that all three haven't scored heavily in the past two years and save Rahane, who got a hundred in Melbourne, the other two batting mainstays haven't been able to convert a lot of their half-centuries into three-figure mark.

Ashwin, who was dropped from the playing XI in the drawn opening game in Nottingham because of Ravindra Jadeja's superior skills with the willow, is back in the mix.

In case, the pitch is on the drier side, there could possibly be no harm in playing both Ashwin and Jadeja, who can trouble this brittle England batting line-up with their different variations.

The poor quality of new generation of England Test players was exposed again as skipper Joe Root had to come to his team's rescue for the umpteenth time with a fifty in the first innings and possibly a match-saving 21st Test hundred in the second essay.

There is every possibility that Rory Burns could be replaced by Haseeb Hameed, who scored a hundred opening the innings for the County Select XI against Indians in the tour game last month.

For Kohli, if four pacers are non-negotiable, then one among Ishant Sharma or Umesh Yadav will be straightaway replacing Shardul Thakur but the choice might not be that easy.