Rajat Patidar has been called up to the India squad to replace Virat Kohli for the first two Tests against England.

Three days ahead of the first India-England Test in Hyderabad, Kohli withdrew from the squad for the first two matches of the five-match series citing personal reasons. Today (January 24), BCCI have named his replacement.

Patidar, the 30-year-old right-hand batter from Madhya Pradesh, has been called up to the Test side for the first two matches. He recently made his international debut in the ODI series against South Africa in December 2023, where he scored 22 off 16 balls, and has been in and around the India A setup for the last couple of years.

In the first unofficial Test between India A and England Lions last week, Patidar smashed a brilliant century, scoring 151 out of a team score of 227. 

Patidar boasts of a solid first-class record, having scored exactly 4,000 runs from 55 matches at an average of 45.97. He has 12 first-class hundreds and 22 fifties to his name.

Patidar shot to limelight during the IPL 2022 Eliminator where he scored a match-winning hundred for the Royal Challengers Bangalore against the Lucknow Super Giants. An Achilles tendon injury then kept him out of the game for a long time.

The Hyderabad Test will be the first time that India will go into a game without any of Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, or Ajinkya Rahane in the XI since the latter’s Test debut.

Having returned back to full fitness and good form, Patidar would be looking to make the most of the opportunity he has got. Chances of him making it to the XI look low, however, with KL Rahul set to play as a pure batter and not as a wicketkeeper.

India squad for the first two England Tests

India Test squad (first two Tests): Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Avesh Khan

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