Rajat Patidar added to India Test squad as Kohli's replacement

Rajat Patidar, the Madhya Pradesh hitter, has been called up to India's Test crew as a trade for Virat Kohli, who has pulled out of the initial two Tests against Britain for individual reasons. Patidar was in Ahmedabad where India An are playing Britain Lions, and will arrive at Hyderabad later on Wednesday.

With Kohli inaccessible, India had no save expert hitters in the Test crew, aside from KS Bharat and Dhruv Jurel, one of whom the lead trainer Rahul Dravid affirmed would play as the expert wicketkeeper.

Patidar is falling off 151 off 158 balls in the initial four-day match against a Britain Lions assault that included three internationals. The 30-year-old has imposing numbers: 4000 runs in top of the line cricket at a normal of 45.97, with 12 hundreds. Patidar had made his ODI debut against South Africa in December.

The primary Trial of the five-match series among India and Britain starts in Hyderabad on January 25.

Devdutt Padikkal, the Karnataka player, in the interim has been added to the India A crew as a substitution for B Sai Sudharsan, who is out with back fits. Rinku Singh has likewise been added to the India A crew for the second four-day match against Britain Lions, to be played in Ahmedabad from January 24, after prior just being named in the crew for the third - and last - round of the series.

India's squad for first two Tests against England

Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Avesh Khan, Rajat Patidar