Team India has been forced to make yet another change ahead of the final Test match against England at The Oval after Rishabh Pant got injured in the Manchester Test. The Indian wicketkeeper-batter who has been in excellent form in the five-match Test series was officially ruled out of the final Test late on Sunday (July 27) evening, paving the way for N. Jagadeesan to slot into the squad. So, who is N. Jagadeesan, who will fill in the shoes of injured Pant in the final Test?
N. Jagadeesan roped in for Rishabh Pant
A seasoned player in the Indian domestic cricket, Jagadeesan plays domestic cricket for Tamil Nadu and has been an integral part of the side for the last few seasons. He was born in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore on 24 December 1995 and has kept wickets for Tamil Nadu since making his debut in the junior divisions. Jagadeesan made his debut for the senior Tamil Nadu side in October 2016 when he was just 20. He scored an unbeaten 123 in his debut innings for Tamil Nadu against Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy contest, thus making a quick mark.
A year later, he made his debut in the List A format (50-over format) as he competed in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Tamil Nadu and later played in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2017. A promising star, Jagadeesan was on the radar of several Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises before Chennai Super Kings won the race for his signature before the IPL 2021. He would play a mere seven matches for CSK in two seasons before being released.
Kolkata Knight Riders would then sign Jagadeesan for IPL 2023, where he played six matches and scored a mere 89 runs. In total, Jagadeesan’s brief IPL career lasted for just 13 matches and scored 162 runs with an average of 18.
The 29-year-old has scored 3,373 runs from 52 first-class matches, including 10 centuries and 14 half-centuries, at an average of 47.50.
Jagadeesan has been on the fringes of India A setup for a while. He has topped the run charts for two seasons back-to-back. In the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy, he made 816 runs in 13 innings at 74.18. He followed that with 674 runs in 13 innings at 56.16 in 2024-25. This included two hundreds and five half-centuries.
New Delhi: What started as a battle to survive the day for India ended in England’s desperation to call it a day as the Shubman Gill-led visitors produced a spirited batting effort to force a draw in the 4th Test at Old Trafford in Manchester, saving the match and keeping themselves alive in the series. Ben Stokes and the hosts seemed to have had enough when the England captain offered to shake hands, with 15 overs left in the final day’s play.
But India held on, like they had in the last five sessions, to let Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar complete their respective hundreds before declaring their second innings on 425/4 to take a draw that would feel nothing less than a huge moral victory. From 0/2 at the start of the second innings, buried under a mountain of runs, India fought back to pull off one of the greatest escapes in recent Test history.
After losing two wickets on successive deliveries in the first over, chasing a huge 311-run lead in their second innings, India seemed all but out of the Manchester Test. But skipper Shubman Gill led from the front with a magnificent hundred and was supported by the incredibly consistent KL Rahul, before Jadeja and Sundar shared an unbeaten 203-run stand that broke England and saw India secure a defining draw.
India batted for five sessions across two days and faced 143 overs to deny England a victory and the series in what was a remarkable fightback from the visitors. It started with Gill and Rahul taking charge to lift India to 174/2 from 0/2 at stumps on Day 4. The duo kept India in the game despite their horror start to ensure they had enough to battle through the final day.