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The absence of Virat Kohli for the first two home Test
matches against England may provide an opportunity for one recent regular local
performer. These are the potential candidates.
Rajat Patidar
The Madhya Pradesh player who won the Ranji Trophy
bats mostly at number four. He is coming off a brilliant 151 against the
England Lions in Ahmedabad late last week in the maiden unofficial Test for
India A. He had scored 111 against the same opponents in a two-day warm-up
match before that.
With 12 hundreds and 4000 runs at an average of 45.97
in first-class cricket, the 30-year-old boasts impressive stats. He initially
reached new heights in MP’s successful season of 2021–2022, finishing as the
team’s second-highest run scorer with 658 runs in nine innings at an average of
82.25. This includes a hundred in the match against Mumbai to win the contest.
Cheteshwar Pujara
Pujara is still persevering in getting through the
domestic season. He became the fourth Indian player to reach 20,000 first-class
runs on Sunday in the Ranji Trophy’s third round.
He scored his ninth double-ton of the season against
Jharkhand, an unbeaten 243, to start the season. Since then, he has scored 49,
43, 43, and 66. Pujara may benefit from his current form and 103 Test
experience, the last of which was in the WTC final against Australia in June of
last year.
Sarfaraz Khan
Sarfaraz bats for Mumbai mostly at No. 5, where he has
shown consistency over the past four seasons. But his inconsistent performance
for India A has considerably pushed him down the list. All things considered,
Sarfaraz’s 82.46 average is higher than that of any batter in the world who has
amassed 2000 or more first-class runs since 2020.
Though his ability to consistently handle
short-pitched bowling has been called into doubt, Sarfaraz is a superb spinner
and may make a big difference in the middle order on wickets that are predicted
to turn.
B Sai Sudharsan
Sai Sudharsan has experienced the fastest increase in
stock price of any player in recent memory. The left-hander for Tamil Nadu is a
fashionable player with a laid-back appearance. Several commentators and the
team management have praised his technique. In South Africa last month, he
opened his ODI career with back-to-back half-centuries. Over the last six
months, he has been involved in India A’s red-ball lineup. This comes after a
respectable 2022–23 Ranji season in which he scored 572 runs at a 47.66 average
in 12 innings. In his most recent first-class match for India A against the
England Lions last week, he scored 97 runs.