Team India have handed Test debut to Bengal's young pacer Akash Deep as they target series win in Ranchi. India's head coach Rahul Dravid handed the debut cap to the 27-year-old pacer from Bengal before the toss on day 1 of the fourth Test.
Akash Deep is replacing India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah who has been rested for the 4th Test in Ranchi to manage his workload. Akash has quite an impressive first-class record as he has already claimed 104 wickets in 30 games at an average of 23.58.
The right-arm speedster has bagged seven four-wicket hauls and four five-wicket hauls in his first-class career thus far.
Akash pipped his fellow Bengal pacer Mukesh Kumar to make it to the playing XI. Earlier, Mukesh was released from the squad at the start of the third Test at the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot to join Bengal for a Ranji Trophy game.
He joined the Indian team back for the fourth Test but was unfortunate to miss out on selection as the Indian team management decided to give Akash the nod ahead of Mukesh.
"I was hopeful that in the near future I might get a Test call-up if I keep performing but I didn't expect that it would come by the third match itself," Akash Deep told PTI after he was added to India's squad for the last three Tests against England.
Akash has already had a taste of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as he plays for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the lucrative tournament.
India's playing XI:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
England's playing XI:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Tom Hartley, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson, Shoaib Bashir.
