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Virat Kohli, who withdrew from the first two Test
matches against England due to personal reasons, has been replaced by Madhya
Pradesh batter Rajat Patidar in the Indian Test team. Patidar is travelling to
Hyderabad later on Wednesday from Ahmedabad, where India A is facing the
England Lions.
With the exception of KS Bharat and Dhruv Jurel, one
of whom head coach Rahul Dravid guaranteed would play as the specialist
wicketkeeper, India’s Test team contained no backup specialist batters due to
Kohli’s injury.
In the opening four-day encounter against an England
Lions assault that featured three internationals, Patidar is coming off 151 off
158 balls. The 30-year-old has impressive stats: 4000 runs at 45.97, with 12
hundreds, in first-class cricket. In December, Patidar played his first ODI
match against South Africa.
January 25 marks the start of the first Test in the
five-match series between India and England in Hyderabad.
Devdutt Padikkal, the Karnataka batter, meanwhile has
been added to the India A squad as a replacement for B Sai Sudharsan, who is
out with back spasms. Rinku Singh has also been added to the India A squad for
the second four-day match against England Lions, to be played in Ahmedabad from
January 24, after earlier only being named in the squad for the third – and
final – game of the series.