[Watch] Unlucky debutant Rajat Patidar fails to kick the edged ball away from his stumps

Rajat Patidar's Test debut came to an unlucky end against England at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Friday, February 2.

He poked at a length ball on the middle stump against English leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed. The ball bounced higher than he expected, took a deviation off the shoulder of his bat back to his pads, and then rolled in front of the stumps.

Patidar saw that the ball was going towards his stump sand tried to fend it away with his foot. But he couldn't as it clipped the bails off. Watch the video here:

It ended an impressive knock from the Royal Challengers Bangalore batter which reminded many of Ajinkya Rahane.

He looked completely at ease for his 32 (77). Ben Stokes welcomed him in by having Tom Hartley and Bashir Ahmed on both ends and after settling in, he got a few boundaries of typical white-ball cricket shots.

Rehan, meanwhile, was struggling for most of his spell despite having a lot of protection behind on the boundary. Yashasvi Jaiswal hit him for a few boundaries before Tea but after the break, he became much more consistent and used the bounce much better. The wicket was his due reward.

Patidar, having replaced the injured KL Rahul in the lineup, is in direct competition with Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill for the one remaining middle-order spot when Virat Kohli comes back. Although he scored more runs than both of them, he would have liked to get at least a half-century to keep his place.

More responsibility on Jaiswal and Axar Patel to get India home after Rajat Patidar's wicket

The pitch in Vizag is a good one to bat on and India don't have the extra cushion of Ravindra Jadeja. This means that after Patidar's wicket, Jaiswal only has Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin and KS Bharat as recognized batting partners.

With India needing at least around 400 here, every contribution becomes crucial. Catch the live-action here.

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