RAJKOT, India (AP): After a tense 48 hours waiting to secure a visa, Rehan Ahmed was selected by England for the third cricket test against India starting Thursday.
The 19-year-old legspinner was initially denied entry to India when England’s squad returned on Monday from a mid-series break in the United Arab Emirates. He only held a single-entrance electronic visa, which he used ahead of the start of the test series that stands at 1-1.
Ahmed was granted an emergency two-day visa, allowing him to train in Rajkot on Tuesday, and the situation has now been resolved.
England captain Ben Stokes, who will be making his 100th test appearance, said he had no hesitation picking Ahmed in the team.
“I don’t know how we ended up being in that situation but when it came up, we were straight on to doing what we needed to do to get Rehan in rather than wasting time trying to find out whose fault it was,” Stokes said Wednesday. “The great thing about youth is they just take everything in their stride. He handled a situation that could have affected quite a lot of people in a different way very, very well for such a young kid.
“There was no thoughts around not playing him this week. The test matches he’s played so far, he’s done very, very well and everything we’ve asked of him he’s gone out and tried to deliver.”
For that reason, England stuck with Ahmed and chose to leave put another spinner, Shoaib Bashir, who himself was hit with visa problems at the start of the tour.
The 20-year-old Bashir missed the first test as a result and made his international debut the second test, which India won by 106 runs last week to square the series.
With Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum opting to start with two fast bowlers for the first time this series, pacer Mark Wood was recalled to join James Anderson and Bashir dropped out. Ahmed and Tom Hartley will be the spinners, with Jack Leach — the senior spinner in the touring squad — ruled out of the series because of a knee injury.
Stokes said the selection was based on how the Rajkot pitch played in England’s high-scoring draw against India in 2016.
“Bringing in an extra seamer this week is the option we’ve gone with because we think it’s going to give us the best chance of winning this week,” Stokes said.
India has yet to announce its team.
India (from): Rohit Sharma (captain), Jasprit Bumrah, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, KS Bharat, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Devdutt Padikkal.
England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (captain), Ben Foakes, Rehan Ahmed, Tom Hartley, Mark Wood, James Anderson.
