India all-rounder Axar Patel has recovered completely and is now available for selection for the second Test against England, slated to start from Saturday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Axar had complained of pain in his left knee and was ruled out of the first Test.
The BCCI had included Shahbaz Nadeem and Rahul Chahar in the squad during Axar’s truancy but the All-India Senior Selection Committee has now added the duo back to the list of standby players.
The Indian board on Thursday also shared a clip of Axar bowling in the nets, increasing his chances to feature in the Playing XI of the second Test.
Axar is likely to replace Nadeem, who had a mediocre outing in the series opener where India was outplayed in their own backyard. Nadeem had four wickets in all but gave away 233 runs in 59 overs across two innings with an economy rate of close to 4 runs per over.
India Test squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (Vice-Captain), KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Md. Siraj, Shardul Thakur
Standby players: KS Bharat, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rahul Chahar, Priyank Panchal
Net Bowlers: Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Warrier, Krishnappa Gowtham, Saurabh Kumar
