IND vs ENG: Three Players who can replace Virat Kohli for first two Tests

The Indian team has got a major blow ahead of the five-match Test series against England as the star batter Virat Kohli has withdrawn from the first two Tests due to personal reasons. The 35-year-old will be a major miss in the first two games as he has a brilliant record against England having scored 1991 runs at an average of 42.36 with five hundreds and nine fifties in the longest format.

Hence, replacing Kohli will be a herculean task for the selectors who will be scratching their heads to pick out the best players from the domestic talent pool to replace someone of Kohli’s stature. However, there have been some names who are rapidly gaining the limelight with their stupendous performances in recent times. On that note, let’s take a look at the three players who can replace Virat Kohli in the first two Tests against England.

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1. Cheteshwar Pujara

Cheteshwar Pujara (Photo Source: Twitter)

Touted as the perfect replacement for legendary Rahul Dravid, Pujara was dropped from the Test team following his low returns in the World Test Championship final 2023 against Australia. However, the 35-year-old accepted the failure and decided to grind hard in domestic cricket to get into the eyes of the selectors.

In the ongoing Ranji season, the Saurashtra batter is the leading run-scorer with 444 runs to his name from five innings at an average of 111 with one double century (243*) and one fifty. Recently, he also became just the fourth Indian player to score 20,000 runs in First Class Cricket and joined an elite club with Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar. Given his immense experience of 103 Tests, Pujara can be the ideal candidate to replace Kohli in the first two Tests.

2. Sarfaraz Khan

Sarfaraz Khan (Photo Source: Twitter)

The 26-year-old has been one of the unluckiest cricketers in recent times as he’s been constantly ignored by the selectors despite plundering runs in the domestic circuit. The Mumbai batter began his golden run during the Ranji Trophy 2019-20 accumulating 928 runs from nine innings at an average of 154.66 with three hundreds and two fifties.

He further finished as the leading run-scorer of the 2021-22 season with 982 runs from nine innings at an average of 122.75 with four hundreds and two fifties. Furthermore, the 2022-23 season saw Sarfaraz scoring 556 runs from nine innings at an average of 92.66 with three hundreds and one fifties. However, despite his golden run, he failed to earn his maiden India call-up.  Sarfaraz recently scored 96 against England Lions in a two-day warm-up fixture which could well tilt the balance in his favour along with his excellent ability to play spin bowling.

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3. Rajat Patidar

Rajat Patidar

The 30-year-old batter has been in marvellous form in the past two Ranji Trophy seasons with 658 runs to his name at an average of 82.25 with two hundreds and five fifties during Madhya Pradesh’s victorious season in 2021-22. He further amassed 565 runs from 12 innings in the 2022-23 season with one hundred and six fifties.

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Patidar recently put his batting prowess on display with a scintillating 151 against for India A against England Lions in Ahmedabad in the first unofficial Test. Earlier, he played a brilliant knock of 111 against the same opponent in the two-day warm-up fixture. Hence, the right-handed batter is also among the contenders for replacing Kohli in the first two Tests.