Indian one of the most dependable batsman KL Rahul has not fully recovered from his quadriceps strain due to which he will not be able to play the 3rd Test against England in Rajkot.
Rajasthan Royals batter Devdutt Padikkal has been named as his replacement. This left hander has shown brilliant performances in the domestic circuit where he scored 193 against Punjab and also scored a century against Goa. Performed brilliantly against England Lions where he scored 105, 65 and 21 runs for India A. This will be his maiden call for the Test.
A BCCI official said, “KL Rahul whose availability for the remaining three Tests was subject to fitness, has been ruled out of the 3rd Test against England in Rajkot. Mr. Rahul has reached 90% of match fitness and is progressing well under the supervision of the BCCI Medical team.”
Now Rahul will continue his fitness programme at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and will be supervised by the medical team.
Earlier KL and Jadeja were included in the squad for the remaining 3 test matches against the English team but unfortunately he had to miss the 3rd match and will wait for the 4th match. The Rajkot test will start from 15th February.