Three Players who could replace Cheteshwar Pujara in the series against England (in case of an injury) 

The Test series between India and England is underway and so is the second edition of the WTC cycle, i.e 2021-2023. The hosts won the toss and decided to bat first at Trent Bridge. The visitors on the other hand made a bold decision and left out R Ashwin, picking four pacers in their playing XI.

Both the teams would be eager to start the second edition of the WTC on a positive note. England finished 4th in the WTC 2019-21 cycle while Team India on the other side, finished as the runner-up but displayed poor batting performance in the summit clash against New Zealand.

India vs England Test: Three players who could replace Cheteshwar Pujara in the series against England

Cheteshwar Pujara over the years has been India’s most dependable batsman in Test cricket. The right-handed batsman was one of the main architects behind the team’s triumph in Australia down under during the tour of 2018/19 and 2020/21.

Read Also: Three greatest hundreds by Indian batsmen in England 

Even though Pujara received some flak for not scoring a century since 2019 but he’s expected to play all the matches in the ongoing Test series against England. However, if India’s No.3 gets injured, Let’s have a look at three batsmen who can replace him in the series against England.

KL Rahul 

One of the prominent names who can replace Cheteshwar Pujara in the Indian Test team in the series against England is KL Rahul. Even though the Karnataka batsman will bat at the top of the order in the first Test due to the unavailability of Mayank Agarwal, the right-handed batsman will be the ideal player to replace India’s regular No.3 in Test cricket if injured.

KL Rahul however, has been dependable and most versatile batsman for Team India in the limited-overs format and has proved his mettle by scoring runs consistently for the nation in almost all the games. The Karnataka born batsman, however, has a good record in Tests in England as in his previous outing, Rahul scored a brilliant knock of 149 runs.

Rahul’s recent form can be one of the main reasons he can bat at No.3 for India in case Pujara gets injured. The 29-year-old highlighted his form with a brilliant century in the practise match ahead of the Test series. Even though he played his last Test in the West Indies in 2019, the swashbuckling batsman has a decent record in the longest format of the game. Debuting in December 2014 against Australia, Rahul has featured in 36 Test matches thus far and in those matches, the right-hander has amassed as many as 2006 runs at an average of 34.6 and strike rate of 56.5.

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