Jagadeesan named Pant’s replacement for the Oval Test following the latter’s fractured toe ruling him out for 6 weeks.
Ahead of India’s fifth and final Test match against England, which begins at The Oval on Thursday, Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper N Jagadeesan has been called up for the first time.
He took Rishabh Pant’s spot after the latter broke his right foot batting in the first innings of the recently finished Old Trafford Test.
The 29-year-old Jagadeesan is expected to join the team in London on Tuesday after receiving his visa early on Sunday morning. He will serve as a backup for Dhruv Jurel, who took wickets in the third and fourth Tests while filling in for Pant, who suffered a finger injury in the third Test.
For some time now, Jagadeesan has been on the periphery of the India A lineup. In the Ranji Trophy, he has led Tamil Nadu’s run charts for two consecutive seasons. He scored 816 runs in 13 innings at 74.18 in 2023–2024. In 2024–2025, he followed that with 674 runs in 13 innings at 56.16.
Despite the fact that Jagadeesan did not make India Over the past 12 months, the BCCI’s centre of excellence has shortlisted a larger pool of targeted players, including him, for the shadow tour to England. He has also demonstrated the flexibility to play a variety of batting positions as a batter.
Since making his first-class debut in 2016, he has amassed a competitive domestic record. With a 79-inning average of 47.50 and a top of 321 against Chandigarh in January 2024, he has amassed 3373 runs with 10 hundreds and 14 half-centuries.
Jagadeesan last played for the Tamil Nadu Premier League’s Chepauk Super Gillies earlier this month, where he scored 81 runs off of 41 balls in his final Twenty20 innings on July 4. Jagadeesan, who coached a Tamil Nadu Colts squad last year, is making his second trip to the UK.