Rishabh Pant
India captain Shubman Gill on Tuesday confirmed Rishabh Pant’s participation as wicketkeeper in the crucial fourth Test against England starting here from Wednesday but pacer Akash Deep will miss out.
The development surrounding Pant is a boost for India after key players like all-rounder Nitish Reddy, Arshdeep Singh and Akash have suffered injuries of varying intensity.
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Reddy has now been ruled out of the remainder of the series, while Akash, who appeared to have been struggling with his hip during the Lord’s Test, will now sit out of the Old Trafford Test.
Pant, who had suffered a finger injury at the Lord’s, underwent a training session here that lasted over two hours on Monday.
“Rishabh Pant will keep wickets in the fourth Test against England in Manchester,” Gill said on the eve of the match.
Pant played as the wicketkeeper only for 35 overs in the third Test due to the injury with Dhruv Jurel doing the duty for the rest of the match.
In fact, Jurel had an underwhelming time behind the stumps during England’s second innings, conceding 25 byes and the home side won the third Test by 22 runs.
The injury to Arshdeep and Akash has forced India to add rookie pacer Anshul Kamboj to the squad and Gill praised the Haryana man.
“We have seen his skill set. We have the belief that he can win matches for us. Kamboj is close to making his debut tomorrow. You are going to see whether it is him or Prasidh Krishna,” he added.
Speaking about the injury woes that the team is facing at a crucial junction, Gill said, “It is never easy when there are injuries. Nitish (Reddy) is missing and Akash is also unavailable for this match. (But) we have good enough players to take 20 wickets.”
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The India captain has also backed Karun Nair even as he struggled to register big scores in the series.
“We think he is batting well. First match he didn’t play at his number. No issues with his batting. Once you are able to get to 50 and get in the zone. We are hopeful that he can turn it around: Gill said on Nair, who so far produced scores of 0, 20, 31, 26, 40 and 14 in the first three Tests.
England lead the five-match series 2-1.
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