Who Is Mukesh Kumar? India's Latest Test Debutant vs West Indies And A Domestic Cricket Star

The Indian cricket team had only one change for the second Test against West Indies that started in Trinidad from Thursday. With Shardul Thakur out due to a niggle, India captain Rohit Sharma announced that Mukesh Kumar would be replacing the all-rounder. Mukesh is a right-arm pacer and plays for Bengal in the domestic tournaments. He has been on the fringes of the national team for quite sometime now. Mukesh got his maiden India call-up in September, last year, for the ODI series against South Africa. Then in December, 2022, he was was selected for the T20I series against Sri Lanka.

Born in Gopalganj, Bihar, the 29-year-old Mukesh made his first-class debut on October 30 in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy for Bengal against Haryana. In 39 matches he has taken 149 wicket at a strike-rate of 47.70. He has also played 24 List A games taking 26 wickets and 33 T20 games taking 32 wickets.

India captain Rohit said at the toss, "We were looking to bat first. Looks nice and sunny as well. It's going to get slower and slower. Shardul has pulled up a niggle. He's not fit. Mukesh Kumar is going to make his debut. He has worked hard in the domestic cricket. There's lot of memories, the rivalry between the two teams has always been exciting to watch. It's always been a tough tour, you have to work hard. Even in the last game, we had to work hard, especially the batters. Hopefully we get the result we are expected of."

Teams: India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Jaydev Unadkat, Mukesh Kumar, Mohammed Siraj.

West Indies:Kraigg Brathwaite(c), Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Kirk McKenzie, Jermaine Blackwood, Alick Athanaze, Joshua Da Silva (wk),