Who is Akash Deep? The India pacer making his Test debut at Ranchi against England

Akash Deep on Friday became the 313th Indian Test player as he was handed his international debut cap ahead of the fourth match against England at Ranchi. The 27-year-old is replacing Jasprit Bumrah in the playing XI as the senior fast bowler has been rested to manage his workload. This is the only change captain Rohit Sharma has made to India’s playing XI.

Who exactly is Akash Deep? We delve deeper into the cricketer’s background:

Much like senior pacers Mohammed Shami and Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep represents Bengal in domestic cricket but isn’t originally from that state. Son of a school teacher, Akash was born in the town of Dehri in Bihar’s Rohtas district on 15 December, 1996, and would move to Bengal in 2010 where his uncle would support his ambition of becoming a cricketer after he faced multiple hurdles as a child.

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He would make his senior debut for Bengal in all three formats in the year 2019, and has since made 30 First-Class appearances, besides playing 28 List A and 41 T20 matches. The pacer was part of the Bengal sides that reached the final of the Ranji Trophy in 2020 as well as in 2023, where they would finish runners-up on both occasions after losing to Saurashtra.

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Akash would finish Bengal’s top wicket-taker in both seasons though in 2019-20 he was tied with left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed on 35 scalps, with the latter having a better average and economy. Overall, Akash has 104 First-Class wickets at an average of 23.58 and an economy of 3.03 with best bowling figures of 6/60 that came in only his second First-Class appearance — against Gujarat in the 2019-20 season.

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Akash has had a fine run with the ball of late, finishing the leading wicket-taker for India A in their unofficial three-Test series against England Lions — collecting 11 wickets at an average of 18.72. His heroics in that series propelled him into the India squad ahead of the third Test at Rajkot and finally to the India cap in Ranchi.

As for his white-ball record, Akash had been picked up by the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2022 season. In seven outings across two seasons, Akash has six wickets to his credit and a best bowling display of 3/45 against Kolkata Knight Riders in his maiden season.