India, July 2 -- If "intent" was the buzzword of Virat Kohli's captaincy, the early contender for Shubman Gill's tenure is "safety first". There is no other way to really explain India's baffling selection calls for the second Test against England at Edgbaston, Birmingham.

A fit Jasprit Bumrah was rested - despite the week's break after the Headingley game - and one-Test-old batter Sai Sudharsan and bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur were dropped to make way for pacer Akash Deep, batting allrounder Nitish Reddy and batting allrounder Washington Sundar.

"This is an important match for us, but the third match at Lord's... there may be something more in the wicket and we thought we'll play him there. We were very tempted to play (Kuldeep) ...