After finishing duties with India A team in the tri series, Axar Patel has been named as the replacement for Ravindra Jadeja in the 3rd test match to be played at Palleke, Kandy from 12th July. Ravindra Jadeja was banned after throwing a ball to Sri Lankan player on the 3rd day of 2nd test played at SSC, Colombo. India has attained a 2-0 lead in the test series with comfortable wins in both test matches so far.
Jadeja played a key role in India’s win over Sri Lanka during the 2nd test match scoring 70 and also taking 7 wickets which helped the visitors to win the match by an innings and 53 runs. Axar Patel made his ODI debut on 15th June 2014. Since then he has played 30 ODI matches and 7 T20 matches for team India. In the 30 ODI matches, the left arm all-rounder has played so far, he has taken 35 wickets and scored 178 runs. He has been in and out of the Indian ODI squad.
Axar Patel could make his debut in the 3rd test match. With Kuldeep Yadav in the squad, it will be interesting to see if Patel makes his test debut or Kuldeep Yadav gets his second test match. Axar Patel did well in the recently concluded tri-series including hosts South Africa A and Afghanistan A. India A won the tri-series tournament by defeating South Africa A by 7 wickets in the finals which finished yesterday.
Ravindra Jadeja climbed to number 1 ranked all-rounder in the world going past Bangladesh Shakib Al Hasan. His performance has helped India to maintain the number 1 rankings for team India in test matches.
India has done extremely well in test matches remaining the number 1 ranked team since last year. When team India visited Sri Lanka last time during 2015, Virat Kohli was the captain and won the series by 2-1. This will be an ideal chance for team India to whitewash Sri Lanka. Under Virat Kohli captaincy, the Men in Blue have won 8 consecutive test series.
