Ankur Singh of Aakash Tigers MWS bowls a delivery during match 13 of the Men’s T20 Mumbai 2026 against ARCS Andheri at the Wankhade Stadium, Mumbai on 7 June 2026.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Sarfaraz Khan and KL Rahul are locked in a selection battle for the second Test against New Zealand in Pune which starts on October 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said on Tuesday (October 22, 2024) that middle-order batters KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan are locked in a selection battle for the second Test against New Zealand in Pune even though head coach Gautam Gambhir is keen to give the former, a long rope.

With India looking to bounce back from the eight-wicket thrashing at Bengaluru in the opening Test, focus will be on the team combination with Washington Sundar being added to the squad. Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant are both aiming to shake off injury concerns for the match starting on Thursday (October 24, 2024).

“Yeah, there’s no point in sugarcoating it, there’s a fight for a spot,” ten Doeschate told the media when asked if Rahul and Sarfaraz were battling for a place in the team, in Pune at the MCA Stadium ahead of India’s training session.

“Sarfaraz was obviously brilliant in the last Test. I went to KL after the last Test (and) said how many balls do you play at (and) miss at? He didn’t play at (and) miss at one ball and that’s what tends to happen when you’re not getting runs.

“There’s certainly no concerns about KL, he’s batting nicely, he’s in a good mental space. But we are certainly going to have to fit seven pieces into six spots for this Test and look at the pitch now and decide what’s going to be best for the team,” he said.

Sarfaraz scored a second-innings 150 in the Bengaluru game, while Rahul remained off-colour in both essays.

While admitting that it is difficult to keep Rahul out of the equation in the Test format, ten Doeschate said head coach Gautam Gambhir is “keen to” give him a long rope.

“It’s not like we’re worried about his form. If you go on just the past three months since Gauti has been in here, he’s keen to give him (Rahul) as much rope as we can. We have a lot of faith in him,” he said.

“But at the same time, it’s a very competitive environment, with Sarfaraz getting 150 plus runs (222 not out) in the Irani Trophy final. The decision will be what’s best for the team, but we’ll certainly back all the guys in,” he added.

Pant, who did not keep wickets for a significant part of the opening Test, and Shubman Gill, who missed the match due to stiffness in his neck, are close to attaining their full fitness.

“Rishabh is pretty good. I think Rohit (Sharmna) touched on it the other day. He was having a little bit of discomfort at the end range of his movement with the knee. But fingers crossed, he’ll be good to keep in the Test as well,” he said.

“He (Gill) looks so (available for this Test). He has batted last week in Bangalore, he had a few nets, he’s got a little bit of discomfort, but I think he’ll be good to go for the Test,” he added.

India B wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, during the Duleep Trophy 1st Match between India B vs India A, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium (KSCA), in Bengaluru on September 06, 2024.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The audacity of Rishabh Pant, who made a fifty, and Sarfaraz Khan helped India B waddle past persistent India A pacers to post a momentum-grabbing second innings total of 150 for six after Day 3 of the Duleep Trophy match here on Saturday, September 7, 2024.

India B is now ahead by 240 runs with Washington Sundar (6) at the crease after bowling out their rivals for 231 in their first innings to take a 90-run lead. Pant was the headliner of the day with a 61 off 47 balls (4×9, 6×2).

But that lead suddenly looked so feeble when pacers Khaleel Ahmed (2/56) and Akash Deep (2/36) combined to reduce India B to 22 for three inside eight overs, overall lead standing at 132 at that point.

Skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran and first innings centurion Musheer Khan (0) fell to Akash Deep, while Yashasvi Jaiswal perished to Ahmed, and all three catches were taken by stumper Dhruv Jurel. India B went to tea at 33 for three.

In that context, it would not have been entirely out of place to imagine for Pant and Sarfaraz (46, 36b, 7×4, 1×6) to knuckle down and take their team to safer ports as the ball was still darting around appreciably.

However, both of them were irreverent to the situation, conditions, and bowlers.

The right-left combination hammered 72 runs from a shade over nine overs to tilt the balance of the match completely in favour of their team.

Sarfaraz was brutal on Akash, smoking him for five consecutive fours around the park while Pant neutralised Ahmed with a late cut and punch through the covers that galloped to the fence for boundaries.

Sarfaraz, who was dropped on 28 by Ahmed off his bowling, creamed a flat six off the left-arm seamer over cover, evoking a wowing response from a good holiday crowd.

But he soon fell to Avesh Khan, snicking a climbing delivery on the off-stump to Jurel behind the wicket.

However, Pant did not slow down at the other end and brought up his fifty in just 34 balls. The left-hander moved from 43 to 49 with an overhead six off Kuldeep Yadav, and a ball later he brought up the mini milestone with a single.

But Pant fell to Tanush Kotian, scooping a simple catch to substitute Kumar Kushagra in his attempt to sweep the spinner.

By that time, Pant, who was tidy behind the wicket, also dispelled any lingering doubt about the first-choice wicketkeeper batter for the upcoming two-Test series against Bangladesh.

Earlier, pacers Navdeep Saini (3/60) and Mukesh Kumar (3/62) shared six wickets among them equally as India A were bowled out for 231 after resuming from overnight 134 for two.

Their biggest hope to close the gap with India B was the presence of KL Rahul (37) and Riyan Parag (30).

They looked determined too in their 89-run alliance for the third wicket despite the bowlers giving them some troubles from both ends.

As was the trend in the match, Parag gave a catch down the leg side to Pant off Yash Dayal and Rahul soon followed the suit, missing a sweep off off-spinner Washington to get bowled.

The wicket reduced India A to 169 for five and they had a big distance still to cover.

Shivam Dube (20) played some typically powerful shots, but his edge off Mukesh ended in the hands of Nitish Kumar Reddy at slips as India A went into the lunch at a wobbly 208 for seven.

In the whole of first session, they made 74 runs in 27 overs losing five wickets.

Kotian, a handy lower-order batter from Mumbai, tried to steer the ship with a 71-ball 32, but left-arm spinner Sai Kishore induced a thin edge for Musheer to take a good reflection catch at forward short leg.

It also ended their fight for the innings.

Devdutt Padikkal plays a shot on Day 2 of the 5th Test match against England, at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, in Dharamsala on Friday.
| Photo Credit: ANI

 More than once, the ball off the outside edge of his bat flew out of fielders’ reach.

Some misfields raised his boundary count. A couple of off-drives and one cover drive from the left-hander had the crowd at the HPCA Stadium here at its feet. A straight six brought up his 50 on Test debut. In short, Devdutt Padikkal’s knock had a touch of everything from being fortuitous to fantastic.

Riding on the confidence of scoring 556 runs for Karnataka in the current Ranji Trophy season, not to forget his 191 runs, including a century, from three innings for India-A against England Lions earlier this year, Padikkal displayed style and elegance on the biggest stage on Friday.

His 103-ball 65 — dotted with six and 10 boundaries, mostly on the off-side — came at a time when India needed to tighten its grip on the match. The 97-run fourth-wicket stand with Sarfaraz Khan — his team-mate from India — kept the host on course of batting out the opposition.

Padikkal knew of his debut after Rajat Patidar reported sick on the eve of this match. “Regardless of when you get to know (of your debut), there is always going to be nervousness around. That was still there. I got a message the previous night saying that I could be playing. I was nervous, it was a tough night’s sleep but it is something you also enjoy at the same time. You live for those days.”

Interestingly, the left-hander chose the edged-boundary past the lone slip as his best of the 10 fours on this day.

“Every boundary is enjoyable but the first boundary, off the edge, was most enjoyable because those were my first runs in Test cricket.”

Asked to reflect on the phase when stomach illness kept him away from nets, Padikkal said, “I have always believed that discipline is the key to success. During sickness, I couldn’t do much, but I made sure I was not lagging behind in other areas. I continued to work on myself whether mentally or any other small thing.”

File picture of India’s Dhruv Jurel and Akash Deep during net practice. The pair were instrumental in India’s win over England in the 4th Test at Ranchi
| Photo Credit: Vijay Soneji

One is a war veteran’s son who threatened to run away from home if his father didn’t buy him a kit and allow him to play cricket; another, in effect, did run away and started out in another city. A third sold pani puri off a cart, a fourth spoke delicately about how “things weren’t financially strong at home.” They are, respectively, Dhruv Jurel, Akash Deep, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Sarfaraz Khan who played key roles in India’s victory against England.

There’s more. Aged five, Jurel had an accident that required plastic surgery. A decade later, his mother had to sell off her gold ornament to get him a kit bag. Deep lost his father and a brother in a span of six months and left home because he “didn’t have anything to lose.”

What is sport without stories of valour and spirit, heroism and gallantry? What is a turning pitch or a wrong leg before decision when compared to the days and months of despondency guided by nothing more than hope and a belief in ultimate redemption? What are the odds of finally making it in a country of over a billion people? How many Jaiswals and Jurels have fallen by the wayside because they lacked the guidance or the single-mindedness of these two, and their ability to hold on to their dreams?

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There are too stories of the kindness of relatives and coaches, and of the good fortune of having talent spotted and worked on by those willing to back their judgement. Above all, there is the discipline, the hard work and unwillingness to give up by the Generation Next of Indian cricket.

Elements fitting together

So many elements have to fit together snugly like Lego pieces, before success, inevitable and consistent, is achieved. Some little thing going wrong somewhere at an early stage can have a disastrous final effect. When things work out, it is nothing short of a miracle; the butterfly effect can ruin dreams.

Not so long ago our best players came from the cities and traditional centres: Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai. For a little over a generation now, they have emerged from the old backwaters. This continues. Jurel is from Agra, Jaiswal was born in Bhadohi, UP, Akash Deep in Sasaram in Bihar, where, he says, “playing cricket was a crime.”

In recent years, cricketers have emerged from Roorkee (Rishabh Pant), Unnao (Kuldeep Yadav), Chinnampatti (T. Natarajan), Kakarkhund (Mukesh Kumar). Economic migration has seen the sons of brick kiln workers, auto drivers, taxi drivers, weavers and craftsmen change the family fortunes. If English cricket is identified with Bazball, a style of play and a philosophy, Indian cricket today is best represented by Jaisball, after the poster boy of the new generation.

Reminiscent of Tendulkar

Jaiswal’s two double centuries, his compact defence and his confidence is reminiscent of the young Sachin Tendulkar. Jurel’s ability to read a match situation and change gears has something of Virat Kohli about it. When the future existed in the past, there is comfort in the continuity.

Shubhman Gill, already a captain-in-waiting, batted himself out of a slump, with a vital half-century in the chase. Like a comedian who makes you cry in a serious role or vice versa, Gill played against his grain to see India through. The number three slot seems to be his for the foreseeable future.

If the successful transfer of T20 techniques into Test cricket has shown one thing, it is that sometimes a big heart is more important than a perfect forward defence. It is easy to pick holes in the techniques of some of the young batters; old timers will cavil at the manner in which the front leg is sometimes moved away from the line of the ball rather than towards it, but it has worked. The short-pitched ball might be an issue, but here too the heart can triumph over the head.

There are two tests that Indian players have to pass before they can be accepted into the company of the best. The first, and easier one is their record at home. Then there is the record in countries represented by the acronym SANE: South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and England, on pitches where pace, bounce, swing and seam rule.

India tour Australia at the end of the year, and some reputations will be consolidated then. But whatever happens, the initial hurdle-clearing will always remain an inspiration.