No debut for Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar to play the 5th Test:

Rajat Patidar is one of the four players who have made their Test debuts in the ongoing five-match Test series against England. The other two players to make their debuts in the series are Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, and Akash Deep.

And while the other three players have managed to impress in their debut Test assignments, Rajat Patidar has had a disappointing run so far. Sarfaraz scored half-centuries in both innings of his debut Test while Jurel has played knocks of 46, 90, and 39* so far. On the other hand, Akash Deep announced his arrival by blowing away England’s top order in the Ranchi Test.

As far as Rajat Patidar is concerned, the right-handed batsman has struggled to do well so far. He replaced KL Rahul in the playing eleven for the second Test after the latter was sidelined with a quadricep strain. On his debut, he registered scores of 32 and 9 in Vishakhapatnam.

In the following Test in Rajkot, he was dismissed for 5 and duck. While he was expected to be dropped from the playing eleven for the fourth Test, the team management decided otherwise. However, Rajat Patidar failed to justify the team management’s faith in him and was dismissed for 17 and 0.

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Rajat Patidar to play fifth Test:

With six failures in a row in three Tests, it is widely expected that Rajat Patidar would not be able to hold on to his place in the playing eleven for the upcoming fifth and final Test between India and England in Dharamsala. However, the Indian Express has reported that the batsman is likely to get at least one more chance to prove himself in international cricket.

The report stated that the team management still wants to back the under-pressure batsman. As a result, Karnataka batter Devdutt Padikkal will have to wait longer for his maiden Test cap.

“The team wants Patidar to get one more chance as they feel Patidar has talent and it’s a matter of time before he gets runs. As India has already won the series, the team wants to try him out one more time instead of giving a debut to Devdutt Padikkal,” a source told the news outlet.

Meanwhile, the series is already decided in the favour of the hosts. India beat England by five wickets in the fourth Test to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series. The fifth Test is scheduled to be played on March 7.

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