3 Indian players who made their Test debut out of blue due to injury to other players

Here are three Indian players who made their Test debut unexpectedly.

PARTHIV PATEL

Parthiv Patel during his debut Test vs England 2002 | GettyThe eternal baby-faced cricketer from Gujarat, Parthiv Patel was fortunate to make his Test debut in 2002. India had found a reliable keeper in Ajay Ratra up to that point as Nayan Mongia’s career got over in 2001. Ratra had shown some good skills with the bat becoming the second wicketkeeper to score a century for India in Tests outside the country when he scored 115 against West Indies in Antigua.

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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.

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 19 Oct, 2019

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