Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh has made his choice between Sarfaraz Khan and Rajat Patidar to make their debut in india's second Test against England. This match will be played in Vizag from February 2nd onwards. India trails the five-Test series 0-1 after a 28-run loss in Hyderabad.
While Virat Kohli will continue to remain absent having withdrawn himself from the first two Tests of the series due to personal reasons, injuries to KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja have further depleted the squad.
This led to the BCCI adding Sarfaraz Khan, Sourabh Kumar, and Washington Sundar to the India squad while Rajat Patidar is already present as a replacement for Virat Kohli.
KL Rahul missing the second Test opens up a slot in middle order in India XI and it seems there will be a tossup between Sarfaraz Khan and Rajat Patidar for the sole spot.
Harbhajan Singh shared his views on the same and picked Sarfaraz Khan over Patidar.
“I think Sarfaraz should play. He has been scoring a lot of runs in domestic cricket. He performed well in the games against England Lions as well”, said Harbhajan on his YouTube channel.
Harbhajan also said that the absence of KL Rahul and the lean form of Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer will further put pressure on the young Indian batters.
“Gill and Iyer haven’t scored much runs in the last 10 innings. A lot is expected from them and hopefully, they will perform. With KL not in the team, the responsibility is now even more on these two," said Harbhajan.
He also said that if the Vizag pitch is a spin-friendly surface, then India should go in with 4 spinners in the playing XI. He said: "The pitch is likely to turn; and if it is worse than Hyderabad, then we might see spin more, and only (Jasprit) Bumrah might play as pacer."
Harbhajan Singh’s India XI for Vizag Test:
Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Srikar Bharat (WK), Akshar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav/Mohammad Siraj
(Times of India inputs)
