England win toss and elect to bowl first in Birmingham; India drop Sai, Thakur and rest Bumrah

England are ahead in the series 1-0, courtesy their superb run-chase at Headingley last week.

Rubbishing speculations, Stokes cleared there was no Jofra Archer in his team for the second of the five Tests. England have retained their playing XI from the first Test.

India captain Shubman Gill, who too was keen to bowl first on this surface, said three changes were introduced to his side for the match.

Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar and Akash Deep have been inducted to the team.

The players to be missed out are Sai Sudharsan, Shardul Thakur and premier fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah.

Gill said Bumrah was rested to manage his workload.

"We did get a good break and this is an important match for us. But the third Test being at Lord's, we think there'll be more in that pitch so we'll use him (Bumrah) there," the Indian skipper said on resting Bumrah.

The skipper said Sundar was picked over Kuldeep Yadav to add depth to the lower-order batting.

In both the innings at Headingley, India collapsed soon after their specialist batters were sent back to the hut, failing to capitalise on five hundreds from four batters in the match.

England defeated India by five wickets in the inaugural Test.