RAJKOT // Teenager Haseeb Hameed will become England’s youngest opener when he makes his debut in the first Test against India with Gary Ballance dropped for his lack of runs in Bangladesh.
Ben Duckett, who opened for England in last month’s drawn two-Test series against Bangladesh, drops down the order to replace Ballance at No 4.
Hameed, 19, averages 48.50 in first-class cricket for Lancashire and has four centuries and nine fifties, and England captain Alastair Cook had only good things to sat about him.
“Haseeb has impressed everyone so far on this trip,” Cook said, adding that they had yet to decide on their bowling attack to start the five-Test series.
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“You wonder if a 19 year old, coming on tour, will be overawed but he hasn’t been at all. He has looked really good in the nets and the way he has gone about his business.
“It’s obviously a very special day to pick someone so young.”
Hameed, whose family roots are in India, will be England’s fifth youngest Test cricketer at 19 years and 297 days and the youngest since Ben Hollioake played against Australia in 1997.
All-rounder Hollioake, who was also 19 when he featured at Trent Bridge, is the only other teenager to appear in a Test for England since Brian Close, 18, made his debut in 1949.
“He [Hameed] is incredibly unflappable. He looks a very good player of spin. He picks length well and uses the crease well,” Cook said of his opening partner. “Stuart Broad bowled at him last summer and was almost straight on the phone to me saying how impressed he was with this guy.
“Of course, there will be some tough moments for him over the next few days of playing Test cricket, but I think this guy can play.”
Ballance scored just 24 runs in four innings in Bangladesh while Duckett struggled in his first three innings before scoring a fighting 56 in Dhaka.
“I feel sorry for Gary,” Cook said. “They were tough conditions in Bangladesh and ultimately it’s about how many runs you score.”
Virat Kohli, Cook’s Indian counterpart, said he would not be haunted by past failures against England when battle resumes on Wednesday, and he said he was now a better player than during a nightmare tour two years ago.
Kohli is in the form of his life after hitting two double centuries in the past six months. But he has a dismal record against England, scoring just 322 runs in 17 Test match innings.
“It was a phase when I did not perform too well,” Kohli said about the 2014 tour. “It was England but it could have been any other country in the world.
“I am thankful to England as I have been a very improved cricketer from thereon. I just take it as a setback in my career.”
SCHEDULE:
• First Test, Wednesday to Sunday, Rajkot
• Second Test, November 17-21, Visakhapatnam
• Third Test, November 26-30, Mohali
• Fourth Test, December 8-12, Mumbai
• Fifth Test, December 16-20, Chennai
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