Rajat Patidar will make his Test debut against England in Visakhapatnam, replacing injured KL Rahul in the XI, while Mukesh Kumar has also been selected in place of Mohammed Siraj.
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Patidar, who was called-up to the India squad after Virat Kohli pulled out of the first two Tests due to personal reasons, will make his Test debut in the second Test, which starts today (February 2). The right-hander, who represents Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket, has played 55 first-class games, scoring 4,000 runs at an average of 45.97. He has also scored 12 hundreds and 22 fifties.
With Ravindra Jadeja also injured, Sarfaraz Khan was named in the squad alongside Patidar. The domestic star was also in contention to make the XI but missed out.
India won the toss and opted to bat first in Vizag, making three changes to the side. Kuldeep Yadav replaces Jadeja, while Mukesh has been picked over Siraj, who has been “rested.”
England announced their XI a day before the game, confirming James Anderson as their only seamer in place of Mark Wood. Jack Leach misses out due to an injury that he sustained in the first Test, Shoaib Bashir, in the storm in the past week due to his visa delay, has been handed a debut.
England XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir, James Anderson.
India XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Shreyas Iyer, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Mukesh Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav
