Patidar makes test debut for India against England

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Batter Rajat Patidar earned his first test cap as part of three changes India have made for the second test against England starting on Friday as the hosts bid for a series-levelling victory.

Home captain Rohit Sharma, who elected to bat after winning the toss in Visakhapatnam, said they were ready to bounce back from the narrow defeat in the opening test.

Rubbing salt into the wounds of that 28-run loss in Hyderabad, batter KL Rahul and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja sustained injuries that kept them out of the second test.

Patidar and left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav were drafted in to replace Rahul and Jadeja, while Mukesh Kumar was included in place of fellow seamer Mohammed Siraj.

“What happened in Hyderabad, we’ll take some positives and move quickly on,” Rohit said at the toss.

“We didn’t show the same intent with the bat in the second innings in Hyderabad. Hopefully, we can correct our errors and not repeat them.”

India is also without stalwart Virat Kohli, who is unavailable for the first two tests due to personal reasons.

England named their starting 11 on Thursday, giving Shoaib Bashir his test debut replacing the injured Jack Leach, while James Anderson came in for Mark Wood as their lone seam bowler.

“It was a great week but we’ve got that out of our minds now,” England captain Ben Stokes said.

“We know that India will come back hard at us. It’s a new week, a new game.”