Axar Patel named replacement for suspended Ravindra Jadeja

23-year old Axar Patel on Wednesday was named as the replacement for Ravindra Jadeja for the third and final Test match between Indian and Sri Lanka, set to take place at Kandy from August 12. The Gujarat’s slow left-arm orthodox bowler has so far represented India in 30 ODI matches and 7 T20Is. He has scalped 35 wickets in the shorter format and 7 victims in T20I at an average of 30.20 and 23.00 respectively.

He has been named as a replacement for the no.1 all-rounder after Jadeja was suspended for the Kandy Test match of the series after collecting his sixth demerit point for throwing the ball back at the batsman in an aggressive manner.

Things took an ugly turn when Jadeja fielded the ball off his own bowling and threw it at Malinda Pushpakumara, the batsman during the game, “in a dangerous manner”, as per the report of on-field umpires Rod Tucker and Bruce Oxenford. The act was in breach of article 2.2.8 of the player’s Code of Conduct which deals with “throwing a ball (or any other item of cricket equipment such as a water bottle) at or near a Player, Player Support Personnel, Umpire, Match Referee or any other third person in an inappropriate and/or dangerous manner during an international match”.

Jadeja later accepted the offence but anyway went ahead to take a dig at the decision on social media. The all-rounder was adjudged man of the match for his match winning seven-wicket haul and a gritty half-century in the 2nd Test match. India have already won the series 2-0 and will look to push their case for a white-wash against the Lankans at their own backyard.

Indian Squad for 3rd Test match: Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice captain), Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund.