IND vs ENG: Why does Sarfaraz Khan have a chance to be preferred over Rajat Patidar for Vizag Test?

A rare Test defeat at home has already put India under pressure, and the team, that will be without their talisman Virat Kohli for the second game as well, suffered a twin blow on Monday as middle-order mainstay KL Rahul and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja were ruled out of the contest in Visakhapatnam starting on Friday.

Jadeja sustained a hamstring injury during play on Day 4 of the Hyderabad Test while Rahul complained of pain in his right quadriceps, a BCCI release said.

For a team trying to come to terms with the challenge and positivity of Ben Stokes’ England, losing two senior players for such a crucial game sends them back to the drawing board.

The selection committee has added domestic run-machine Sarfaraz Khan, left-arm spinner Sourabh Kumar and off-spinning all-rounder Washington Sundar to the squad.

In Kohli’s absence, Rahul was the most experienced batsman in the middle order and scored 87 in the first innings as India took a 190-run lead. His dismissal on the fourth afternoon was part of a dramatic collapse that paved the way for England’s 28-run win.

Rajat Patidar is already part of the squad and has shown good temperament in white-ball cricket. In normal circumstances, he should be the next cab off the rank but with questions being raised over Indian batsmen’s proficiency in facing spin and their reluctance to employ the various versions of the sweep shot, Sarfaraz could get a look in.

Sarfaraz has been shown to have some issues while facing genuine pace and bounce, but with the pitch at Visakhapatnam expected to be spin-friendly, his prowess in that department could be deemed useful.

As far as a replacement for Jadeja is concerned, left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav is already in the squad. The Uttar Pradesh tweaker has an impressive Test record and has the ability to confound batsmen with his variations. But his inclusion wouldn’t do much for India’s batting depth. His statemate Sourabh is an experienced performer at the first-class level and could be a like-for-like replacement for Jadeja, who has been one of the foremost all-rounders in Test cricket over the last several years.

Sourabh is no rabbit with the bat, but is untested at the highest level and with some members of the team – especially on the batting side – not rich in experience, it could be a step in the unknown for the selectors. Moreover, with a left-arm spinner in Axar Patel already part of the XI, a little variety in their spin arsenal won’t go amiss.

Sundar is classified as an all-rounder in white-ball cricket – especially T20s – and his four previous Tests have brought him three fifties and a batting average of 66.25, but he only has six wickets, each of which have cost him almost 50 runs.

If the team management is determined to keep playing the spin card and believe that their greater pedigree in that department will tell in the final analysis, they are likely to go for Kuldeep, who has delivered in pressure situations in the past. In that case, they will hope that the specialist batsmen they go with get enough runs on the board.

On the batting front, it remains to be seen whether the selectors go for the weight of domestic runs that Sarfaraz brings to the table or the impression that Patidar has made in his small sample size, even though he averages much less in first-class cricket.

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