Star Indian batter Suryakumar Yadav made his Test debut for India on Tuesday (February 9) in Nagpur as he was named in the playing eleven for the 2023 Border-Gavaskar Test series opener against the world’s No. 1 Test team, Australia. The 32-year-old earned his maiden call-up to the Test side for the Australian series last month, and after Shreyas Iyer got ruled out of the first game due to a shoulder injury, he got a chance to play in whites for Team India.
The 32-year-old Mumbaikar earned his Test debut cap from former Indian skipper and head coach Ravi Shastri before the start of the first day’s play in Nagpur. During the presentation ceremony, apart from the teammates, his wife and other members of his family were also present on the field.
The BCCI’s official Twitter handle shared a video of Shastri presenting the Test debut cap to Surya, and while receiving it, the right-handed batter, who is at the No. 1 position in the T20I batters ranking, had a wide smile on his face.
He was congratulated by his teammates, and after receiving the Test cap and becoming India’s Test player, he was seen having tears in his eyes.
Surya will come out to bat at No. 5, and it remains to be seen how he performs in the traditional format of the game.
Before making his Test debut for India, Surya has featured in a total of 20 ODIs and 48 T20Is for Men in Blue in which he has scored 433 and 1675 runs respectively. As far as his numbers in red-ball cricket are concerned, the Mumbai batter has played 79 first-class matches in domestic cricket, and in 132 innings, he hammered 5549 runs, which came at an average of 44.75 and a strike rate of 63.56.
Apart from Surya, India also handed a Test debut to wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat, who, after serving as Rishabh Pant’s deputy for more than an year, is finally getting a game.
