Former Indian cricketer and batting coach Sanjay Bangar feels that Devdutt Padikkal could be in line to make his debut for India in the 5th Test match against England. The Karnataka batter who came in as KL Rahul’s replacement, sat out in the dugout during Rohit Sharma’s side’s 5-wicket victory at Ranchi.
Bangar feels that it’s a good opportunity for Devdutt Padikkal to come in as the series has already seen a couple of debutants, so why not another? And if it happens then it will be at the expense of Rajat Patidar who couldn’t score anything significant from the opportunities he had from the 2nd Test onwards.
Patidar could amass a total of 63 runs from 6 innings at Vizag, Rajkot and Ranchi. While India did win all of these matches, it was somehow an opportunity lost for the Madhya Pradesh batter. As he struggled mainly with his shot selection, he also saw Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel making a better impression than him from fewer chances.
Devdutt Padikkal should take inspiration from Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel
Sarfaraz had back-to-back fifties in his arsenal for his debut Test match at Rajkot while Dhruv Jurel remained unlucky with his 46. After that Jurel didn’t back off but he levelled up. In the 4th Test, his 2nd at Ranchi, Jurel scored a memorable 90 runs from a tough situation to keep his team in contention for the win.
He also made news for his nifty glovework and then scored 39* including the winning runs of a win that stamped 17 straight home Test series victory. If Devdutt Padikkal makes his debut like Sarfaraz and Jurel, then only will it make any sense. Otherwise, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli are returning for India’s next Test series most probably against Bangladesh after the T20 World Cup in June.
So there’s a long time until India plays a Test match after March 7th and Padikkal should play in a way that he gets remembered when it’s time for selection. He boasts of a decent first-class record from the amount of matches he has played. In 31 outings for Karnataka, the 23-year-old has scored 1875 runs in 30 matches including 8 full centuries and 11 half-centuries with a best of 152.
He had also featured for the India A team against England Lions from where Sarfaraz and Patidar got their call-ups. There he had scores of 105, 65, and 21 and he headed into those games after scoring 42, 31, and 103. But Devdutt Padikkal won’t find it that easy as conditions in Dharamshala could favor the bowlers. And that could be a good challenge for him to have as Rahul Dravid will mainly look at his attributes as a number 4 and not number 3.
Bangar confident about Padikkal’s inclusion
Majorly because of Rajat Patidar’s no-show in the last 3 Tests, Sanjay Bangar would not back him to play another one when there is an untouched batter like Devdutt Padikkal present.
“Because Rajat (Patidar) hasn’t scored runs in three Test matches, you can see a new debutant there. The Indian team can give a chance to Devdutt Padikkal. So two changes according to me.” – Sanjay Bangar told Star Sports.
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