India middle-order batter KL Rahul has been ruled out of the third Test against England in Rajkot. Devdutt Padikkal has been named as his replacement in the squad.
Rahul along with Jasprit Bumrah were due to join the India squad in Rajkot on Monday but Cricbuzz understands that Rahul is still at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru and his omission is largely precautionary. Rahul missed the Visakhapatnam Test with a right quadriceps injury and had been named as part of the squad for the last three Tests subject to fitness.
Rahul is expected to rejoin the squad in Rajkot shortly and will travel with the Indian team to Ranchi for the fourth Test.
“Rahul has reached 90 per cent of match fitness and is progressing well under the supervision of the BCCI Medical Team,” BCCI later confirmed in a press release. “He will continue his recovery process at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to be completely match-fit for the fourth and fifth Test.”
Padikkal receives a maiden call-up to Test squad in the middle of a good first-class season. The 23-year-old Karnataka batter, who bats No.3 for his state side, is fresh from an innings of 151 against Tamil Nadu only a few days ago. It was his third hundred in the ongoing Ranji Trophy to go with his 105 against England Lions in the second unofficial Test, which instead came as an opener.
India, who have decided to look past out-of-form Shreyas Iyer and veteran Cheteshwar Pujara, will have a host of fresh faces to pick from in Rajkot. The selectors have kept their faith in Rajat Patidar, who made his debut in Visakhapatnam, and Sarfaraz Khan, who is likely to make his debut.
Squad for 3rd Test: Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Sarfaraz Khan, Rajat Patidar, Ravindra Jadeja, KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal
