Veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has commented on whether star India batter Rinku Singh could replace Virat Kohli in India’s squad for the first two Tests against England. However, India will take on England in a five-match Test series, with the first game taking place in Hyderabad from Thursday, January 25 as well. Notably, Kohli has withdrawn from the first two Tests for personal reasons whereas the replacement will be announced soon.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said: “What about Rinku Singh? He was kept with the team in South Africa. He is not a one-trick pony. It’s not that he is just a white-ball player. It’s not that he is just a T20 player. Check his first-class numbers and he is going back and playing first-class cricket whenever he gets a chance. It’s not that he is cutting corners. He doesn’t make himself unavailable because he is in the T20 team and who is going to play him Test matches. He has an average of over 50 and has been playing for many years. So why not Rinku Singh? Very tempting option.”

Meanwhile, Rinku Singh has hit 3109 runs which came at an average of 57.57 in 44 first-class games. He played quite well against both pace and spin in his 13 international white-ball innings so far. On the other hand, Aakash Chopra also picked Cheteshwar Pujara as another batter who could replace Virat Kohli in the first two Tests. Pujara has scored 7195 runs at an average of 43.60 in 103 Tests so far whereas he has 20013 runs at an average of 51.98 in 260 first-class games so far as well.

“Cheteshwar Pujara – only four Indians have scored more than 20000 first-class runs. He scored a double century recently. Form is with him and he has a proven Test record. He works hard by playing county cricket as well. He is your sincere cricketer. In fact, I say he is Indian cricket’s monk,” Aakash Chopra concluded. “So you can pick him. However, I feel India are not looking in that direction. They have already started looking in a different direction. Cheteshwar Pujara is a legit option but are the Indian selectors looking at him as an option at all? That’s the question we need to ask and wonder.”