Ollie Pope has been included to the 13-man England squad for the second test against India to be played at the Lord's in London starting on August 9, 2018. The 20-year old batsman has been called up in place of middle-order batsman Dawid Malan, who has reached a 50-plus score only once in his previous ten Test innings, as reported by Cricbuzz.

Along with this, the England selectors have also recalled all-rounder Chris Woakes in place of Ben Stokes who is unavailable for the Lord's test. Stokes, who helped his side to a magnificent win at Edgbaston last week, is due to attend his trial in the Bristol court this week forcing him to miss this Test.

Return of Woakes as the spin duo is retained

Woakes, on the other hand, is coming back from an injury but his recent performances in County Cricket has been right up by his standards. Cricbuzz reports that the team management is sure that Woakes is fully fit and has recovered from the knee injury.

England has stuck to the similar bunch of 13 players who were the part of the squad for the first Test, except for the two above mentioned changes. The spin duo of Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali have been retained in the squad, even though Ali wasn't a part of the XI, while Rashid didn't have a huge impact in the previous game.

The reason behind Pope's call-up

When England take the field at Lord's on Thursday, all eyes will be on the 20-year old batsman, Ollie Pope, who will most likely make his test debut.

His inclusion may have surprised some people, but those who follow County Cricket know about the potential in this young man from Surrey.

Playing only in his second season of first-class cricket, Pope, according to ESPNCricinfo has scored 684 runs in Division One of the County Championship this season at an average of 85.50 with three centuries and a fifty.

In fact, Pope also turned up for England Lions in a four-day game against India A recently and returned with a score of 50.

With a lead of 1-0 in the five-match test series, captain Joe Root and his team will be looking to pounce on the form they got from the victory in Birmingham last week.

After the second Test, the Indian players were trolled by English fans, read the complete news and watch the video here - Indian cricketers trolled by English fans after the Edgbaston Test loss.

India will definitely make some changes to their playing XI after the loss in the first Test at Edgbaston, Cheteshwer Pujar is likely to be included. Read the report - India vs England 2nd Test: Cheteshwar Pujara likely to be included in the Indian squad