IND vs ENG: Record made as soon as Devdutt Padikkal made his Test debut, this happened for the second time in Indian cricket history!
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The speculations about a particular player in the Dharamsala Test have proved true and Devdutt Padikkal has finally got a chance to make his Test debut. He is the 314th player to make his Test debut for India. Padikkal got the Test cap from Ashwin in place of Rajat Patidar in Team India's playing eleven for the Dharamsala Test. BCCI revealed that Rajat Patidar had to sit out of the Dharamsala Test due to an ankle injury.
Devdutt Padikkal is a left-handed batsman and is in great form at the moment. In his last six first-class matches he has scored three centuries and one half-century. In a first-class career of 31 matches, Padikkal has scored 2,227 runs at an average of 44.54, including six centuries and twelve half-centuries.
Devdutt Padikkal has got a chance in place of Rajat Patidar.
According to BCCI, the main reason behind Devdutt Padikkal getting a chance in the Dharamshala Test is Rajat Patidar's injury. Patidar injured his ankle during a practice session. Despite his presence in the current series, Patidar's performance has not been remarkable. In the three Test matches of the series, he failed to play any major innings, scoring 32 in his first Test innings but scored 9, 5, 0, 17 and 0 in his subsequent five innings.
Devdutt Padikkal is the fifth player to make his Test debut in the ongoing Test series against England. Before him, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel and Akash Deep also made their Test debut in this series.
This is the second instance in Indian cricket history when five players made their Test debut in the same series. The last time this happened was during the 2020-21 Australia tour, where Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, T. Natarajan and Washington Sundar made their debut. However, in that series where young players got a chance to debut due to injuries to senior players. At the same time, due to the debut of the players in the current series, the team needs them more.