Devdutt Padikkal will make his Test debut for India in the fifth Test of the series against England in Dharamshala.
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England won the toss and elected to bat first in the fifth Test of the series. The visitors had named their XI a day prior to the game, with Mark Wood replacing Ollie Robinson who looked out of sorts in the fourth Test in Ranchi.
India, on the other hand, have made two changes to their side from the winning combination that played in Ranchi.
Bumrah returns, Padikkal to debut
Jasprit Bumrah who was rested for the fourth Test has made his way back to the XI in place of Akash Deep, who debuted in the last game. In the batting department, Rajat Patidar, who had not got a decent score so far in the series, has been replaced by debutant Devdutt Padikkal.
Devdutt Padikkal – Test debut ✅
Jasprit Bumrah – Back in the Playing XI ✅England have won the toss and have opted to bat first in the fifth Test against India.#INDvsENG #Tests #Cricket #DevduttPadikkal #JaspritBumrah #RohitSharma pic.twitter.com/OsJ9is1Z5q
— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) March 7, 2024
Captain Rohit Sharma said at the toss that Patidar suffered an injury while training on the eve of the fifth Test, although he didn’t dive into the details of what the injury was.
This will also be Ravichandran Ashwin’s 100th Test match as the spinner becomes the first player from Tamil Nadu to achieve the milestone. Along with him, England’s Jonny Bairstow will also celebrate featuring in his 100th Test.
Padikkal’s ascension to a Test cap has come on the back of solid performances in domestic cricket and for India A. Traditionally an opener, Padikkal, who has a first-class batting average of 44.54, was called up for this series after KL Rahul was ruled out of the third Test in Rajkot.
India XI for fifth Test in Dharamshala
Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel (wk), R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
England XI for fifth Test in Dharamshala
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson.
