 "Anshul Kamboj was handed his India Test debut cap by former cricketer Deep Dasgupta. Image: BCCI")
Haryana pacer Anshul Kamboj was handed his India debut cap on Wednesday as he was included in the playing XI for the fourth Test against England at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester.
The 24-year-old Kamboj was handed over his debut cap by former Test wicketkeeper-batter Deep Dasgupta a few minutes before the toss. Ben Stokes won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Kamboj has replaced pacer Akash Deep in the playing XI after the latter suffered back issues during the Lord’s Test and failed a fitness Test before the must-win Manchester game.
The BCCI brought Anshul as a backup after he performed well in India A tour and at the domestic level. He recently caught attention after taking a 10-wicket haul in an innings during a Ranji Trophy game against Kerala.
Interestingly, former India cricketer Anil Kumble had also made his Test debut on the same ground and went on to pick a 10-for in an innings.
Meanwhile, India made two more changes as Shardul Thakur has been drafted in to replace an injured Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Karun Nair has been dropped to bring back Sai Sudharsan in the playing XI.
Nair failed to perform in the first three Tests after making a long-awaited comeback to the Test side for the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
England have fielded the same playing XI except for one change as Liam Dawson replaced injured Shoaib Bashir. They registered a their thrilling win in the third Test at Lord’s, where they beat India by a narrow margin of 22 runs to go 2-1 up in the series.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIndia vs England, 4th Test: Playing XIs
India XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Anshul Kamboj
England XI: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Liam Dawson, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer