KL Rahul Out From IND vs ENG 3rd Test: Three days out from the third Test against England in Rajkot, senior India batsman KL Rahul has been ruled out of the game. Rahul has not been given the green signal from the BCCI medical team at the NCA in Bangalore as he has failed to recover from the quadricep injury that he sustained during the first Test in Hyderabad.
The third Test of the series, which stands level at 1-1, is set to get underway on Thursday at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot. India, who are already with Virat Kohli for the entire series, will also miss KL Rahul for the second consecutive match.
The statement from the BCCI said that KL Rahul “has reached 90 percent of match fitness and is progressing well under the supervision of the BCCI Medical Team,” adding that the 31-year-old “will continue his recovery process at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru to be completely match-fit for the fourth and fifth Test.”
KL Rahul Out From IND vs ENG 3rd Test: Devdutt Padikkal gets maiden Test call-up
Rahul, who scored 86 and 22 batting at number 4 in the first Test in Hyderabad, missed the Visakhapatnam Test. Rahul getting ruled out of the Rajkot Test created a conundrum for the BCCI as they had dropped Shreyas Iyer, who batted at number 4 in Visakhapatnam, from the squad.
This led to a maiden Test squad call-up for Rahul’s Karnataka teammate, the young left-handed batsman Devdutt Padikkal.
The 23-year-old left-hander has been in good touch recently. He notched up three centuries and a fifty in his last four first-class matches, including a 105 against England Lions and, most recently, 151 against Tamil Nadu at the Chepauk in Chennai. Padikkal averages 44 in 31 first-class matches in his career so far. He was also in the squad for the shadow tour to South Africa with India A in December.
While he started his career as an opener, Padikkal has shown adaptability and versatility to bat at numbers 3 and 4 for Karnataka in recent times.
Padikkal, though, is likely to be on the bench in Rajkot as Rahul’s injury and Iyer’s axing are likely to pave the way for a Test debut for Sarfaraz Khan.
Another player whose injury India are still fretting over is Ravindra Jadeja, who is recovering from a hamstring strain.
India squad for the 3rd Test against England in Rajkot: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja*, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Rajat Patidar, KS Bharat (WK), Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal.
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