Tanush Kotian has received a maiden Team India call-up. The all-rounder from Mumbai has been picked as Ravichandran Ashwin’s replacement for the remainder of the India vs Australia Test series. Kotian is expected to leave for Australia on Tuesday (December 24) and will be released from Mumbai’s squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy. Kotian will first travel to Mumbai from Ahmedabad and then to Melbourne.
Tanush Kotian’s all-rounder ability
The 26-year-old has impressed everyone with his ability in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 season. Apart from taking 29 wickets at 16.96 in 10 matches, Kotian had also scored over 500 runs in Mumbai’s title-winning run. He was also part of India A and had faced Australia A. He featured in just one match against Australia A, where he managed to grab just one scalp but did score 44 crucial runs.
Tanush Kotian’s first-class stats
| Matches | Runs | Bat Avg | 100s & 50s | Wickets | Bowl Avg | Bowl SR | 5w & 10w |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33 | 1525 | 41.21 | 2 & 13 | 101 | 25.70 | 46.4 | 3 & 0 |
Much like Ashwin, Kotian is a tall off-spinner and possesses great batting ability. In his only Indian Premier League (IPL) match, the batter opened the innings, something Ashwin had done in domestic cricket and even junior cricket. Standing at 6 feet, like Ashwin, Kotian generates bounce and can be a handful to face on high-bouncing Australian pitches.
Axar Patel snubbed?
Now that Kotian has been confirmed to join the team in Melbourne ahead of the Boxing Day Test, it does raise the question of Axar Patel‘s future. The left-arm all-rounder was seen as the successor to Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Now that Ashwin is gone, one would expect Axar to come into the fray. But, instead, Kotian has been recalled. Where does this leave Axar? Who isn’t even a sure-shot starter in ODIs and may not even be among the top three or four spinners in Tests now?
India’s squad for India vs Australia Tests
Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Mohammed Siraj, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravindra Jadeja, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Tanush Kotian*
