IND vs ENG: Ravindra Jadeja, KL Rahul ruled out of second Test, Sarfaraz Khan earns maiden India call-up

After an embarrassing defeat in the first Test against England at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, India have got another major blow as allrounder Ravindra Jadeja and batter KL Rahul has been ruled out of the second game. Notably, Jadeja sustained a hamstring injury during Day 4 of the first game while Rahul complained of a right quadriceps pain.

The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket In India) medical team will be monitoring the progress of the duo. The Men’s selection committee has also named replacements for the duo as Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan has finally earned his maiden call-up to the Indian team. Apart from him, spin all-rounder Washington Sundar has been also added to India’s squad along with Uttar Pradesh’s left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar.

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The national call-up ends Sarfaraz’s long wait for a team India selection as he had been plundering runs in the Ranji Trophy since 2019. The 26-year-old scored 928 runs from nine innings at an average of 154.66 with three hundreds and two fifties during the 2019-20 season.

He further finished as the leading run-scorer of the 2021-22 season with 982 runs from nine innings at an average of 122.75 with four hundreds and two fifties. Furthermore, the 2022-23 season saw Sarfaraz scoring 556 runs from nine innings at an average of 92.66 with three hundreds and one fifties.

However, despite his golden run, the selectors constantly overlooked him as Suryakumar Yadav was preferred over him for the four-match Test series against Australia in February-March 2023.

Jadeja and Rahul were top scorers for India in first innings of first Test

Meanwhile, the absence of Jadeja and Rahul will be a huge blow for India heading into the second game as the duo looked in great form in the first Test. Jadeja (87) and Rahul (86) were the top two scorers for India in the first innings of the series opener while the left-arm spinner also picked five wickets in the game.

Hence, replacing the duo will be a herculean task for the team management as India find themselves 0-1 behind in the series. The situation has been further exacerbated by Virat Kohli’s absence who has withdrawn from the first two Tests due to personal reasons.

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The Rohit Sharma-led side has a huge task at hand of making a strong comeback in the series without several first-choice players in the second Test beginning from Friday, February 02 at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam.

India's updated Squad for 2nd Test vs England: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (WK), Dhruv Jurel (WK), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Avesh Khan, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Sourabh Kumar.