Rajat Patidar, the Madhya Pradesh batter, who made his ODI debut for India last month in South Africa, has earned a Test call-up for the national side for the first two matches against England starting January 25 in Hyderabad. Patidar has replaced Virat Kohli in India's squad, who had withdrawn from the first two matches citing personal reasons. Patidar is coming off two successive centuries for India A against the England Lions and was the frontrunner to be called up as Kohli's replacement.
As per a Cricbuzz report, Patidar was at the BCCI's NAMAN awards on Tuesday, January 23 in Hyderabad along with the rest of the squad and with the knocks of 151 and 111 against the England Lions, was the frontrunner to replace Kohli for the first two Tests. Patidar's selection meant the long wait for Sarfaraz Khan got further longer, who has been raking in runs season after season in first-class cricket since 2020.
Patidar's selection also gave another signal that the selector are not looking towards Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane and that the transition button has been hit properly.
Even though Patidar has been called up, he is unlikely to get a Test cap in the series opener in Hyderabad with KL Rahul likely to bat in Kohli's position at No.4 and Shreyas Iyer at No 5 with specialist wicketkeeper in KS Bharat at No.6 followed by three spinning all-rounders.
It will be a test of Indian middle-order in the absence of Kohli and now with no Pujara and Rahane and South Africa tour wasn't great from the batters' perspective for the side. Earlier, on Tuesday, Rinku Singh, who was already in the India A squad for the third four-day game against England Lions, has been added to the side for the second game as well.
India's Test squad for first two matches against England: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rajat Patidar, KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan
