Here are three Indian players who made their Test debut unexpectedly.
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There have been instances of players being called up at the last minute to fill up a spot for an injured player. Alastair Cook made his Test debut in 2006 for England replacing Michael Vaughan, who was suffering from a knee injury. Such things have happened for India as well and today, Team COC takes a look at three such Indian players who made their Test debuts due to injury to other players.
Check out the 3 Indian players who made their Test debuts out of blue due to injury to others
PARTHIV PATEL
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However, he got injured despite being selected for the England tour in 2002 and a 17-year-old Parthiv Patel was chosen in his place and eclipsed the previous record of being the youngest wicketkeeper, previously held by Pakistan's Hanif Mohammed (17 years and 300 days). Patel continued to be the no.1 keeper in the Tests and even in ODIs for some time, even opening the batting against a rampaging Shoaib Akhtar in 2004.
But poor wicketkeeping and inconsistent batting displays saw him getting dropped from the team in 2004 for Dinesh Karthik and then the rise of MS Dhoni meant no other keeper ever stepped into the dressing room for the next decade or so. He did make a short comeback into the team for South Africa series in 2018 and was chosen for England series thereafter, but again, an injury forced him out of contention and Saha and Pant have pushed him down the pecking order.
WRIDDHIMAN SAHA
Wriddhiman Saha has been the world’s best wicketkeeper for quite some time now and has provided valuable runs with the bat as well. However, he also played under the shadow of MS Dhoni and was his understudy for quite some time before becoming the first choice keeper after his retirement in 2014.
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Saha had made his Test debut as a specialist batsman in 2010 as a replacement for a replacement. VVS Laxman had injured his back and Rohit Sharma was named as his replacement for the 1st Test match of the home series against South Africa in 2010. Unfortunately for Rohit and fortunately for Saha, Rohit injured his ankle on the morning of the Nagpur Test-playing rocket-ball and this led to Saha being included in the team as a batsman.
It took Rohit another 3 years to make his Test debut.
SHAHBAZ NADEEM
He did consistently well for India A teams, but the presence of Ashwin and Jadeja in home Tests and rise of Kuldeep Yadav as the third-choice spinner meant Nadeem was left with nothing but to continue to striving hard, something he did without complaining.
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Finally, his day under the limelight came thanks to an unfortunate injury to Kuldeep Yadav on the eve of the third Test against South Africa in Ranchi. Kuldeep complained of pain in shoulder and Nadeem was called up as a backup and on the day of the match, was handed his Test cap, making him the 296th Test cricketer from India.
This is a reward for all the hard work he has put in toiling away in Indian domestic cricket for more than a decade now and he will hope of getting more and more chances as India will play some more Tests at home.