Reeling from an embarrassing 336-run defeat to India at Edgbaston, England have added Gus Atkinson to their squad for the third Test to ease the burden on their weary bowling unit. Atkinson, 27, who has not featured since injuring his hamstring in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in May, joins a growing list of seam options in England's 16-man squad. With the quick turnaround—just two rest days before Thursday's clash at Lord's - changes appear inevitable for a side that has spent 234 overs in the field over the last two Tests.

Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, and Chris Woakes - England's pace trio in Birmingham - have each delivered over 75 overs across the first two matches. In contrast, India rotated smartly, even resting their pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah for the second Test. England, meanwhile, seems to be running on fumes.

"We've spent a lot of time in the field. The big quicks keep charging in, but we'll have to see how everyone pulls up. With it being such a quick turnaround, there probably will be a decision to make," Captain Ben Stokes said.

Atkinson joins Jamie Overton, Sam Cook, and Jofra Archer as possible candidates to replenish the pace batteries. Bowling during the breaks at Edgbaston, Archer—whose last Test appearance was in February 2021—is getting closer to making his much-anticipated comeback. "We'll let this one settle. When we get to Lord's, we'll have a good think about it," said head coach Brendon McCullum.

England is rushing for both a mental and physical reset as a result of the short recovery period. "We're disappointed. But we've got three days to turn it around. We need to get over this just like we got over the high of winning the first game," Stokes acknowledged.

So far in the series, there is a glaring disparity in workload. The fact that England's front-line seamers have bowled a lot more than their Indian counterparts may have contributed to their declining performance and loss at Edgbaston.

Pitch conditions have also been questioned. Stokes pointed out that the surface did not go as planned, despite the fact that England's batting collapse could indicate otherwise. "As the game got deeper, it was obvious it wasn't behaving how we thought it would. It started suiting India more and more."

England: Ben Stokes (c), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Sam Cook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jamie Smith, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes.