Rajat Patidar or Sarfaraz Khan - who should India play in the 2nd Test vs England?

Ahead of the second Test against England, which will commence in Visakhapatnam on Friday, January 2, India have plenty of selection questions to answer.

KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja have been ruled out of the second Test. The BCCI has added Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar and Saurabh Kumar to the squad, which had already gone through a change when Virat Kohli was replaced by Rajat Patidar for the first two Tests.

India's squad for the second Test vs England: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Avesh Khan, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Washington Sundar, Saurabh Kumar.

There is, of course, the chance that both Patidar and Sarfaraz will feature in Vizag. Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill have experienced some lean returns in red-ball cricket lately, and Rahul might not be the only player replaced.

However, India are likely to refrain from handing out too many caps in an important contest like the second Test. It might thus come down to a shoot-out between the uncapped duo, both of whom have cases to be selected.

Who is a better pick to be part of India's XI in the second Test - Patidar or Sarfaraz?

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Sarfaraz Khan arguably deserves a Test cap more

This is an extremely tough one to call. Both Rajat Patidar and Sarfaraz Khan have been in excellent form lately, and that has reflected in their outings for India A.

Patidar has scores of 111, 151 and 4 in the three matches he has played against England Lions, while Sarfaraz has registered scores of 96, 55, 4 and 161. There isn't much to separate the two players, who are excellent against spin, on that front.

On the previous tour of South Africa, Patidar managed 33 runs in his only red-ball outing. He also made his ODI debut for the Men in Blue. Sarfaraz, meanwhile, scored 34 and 68 in the two first-class matches he played. They are as neck-and-neck as it gets on recent form.

Patidar is a player who has peaked rather late in his career. He is 30 years old, and his first-class average only recently crossed the 45-run mark. The classy batter's conversion rate - 22 fifties and 12 hundreds - isn't overly impressive either.

Sarfaraz, meanwhile, has been piling on the runs for several years. His first-class average is a mind-boggling 69.85, and his strike rate of 70.48 is significantly higher than Patidar's. More tellingly, the 26-year-old has recorded 14 hundreds and 11 fifties, showing that he has always had the knack of playing big knocks.

Patidar was picked in the Test squad before Sarfaraz, so it's arguable that he should be ahead in the pecking order. However, the latter deserved a Test call-up long before he eventually got one, having been knocking down the door with his sheer weight of runs.

Batting position could also play a factor. If Gill is dropped and India need someone to step in at No. 3, Patidar might be a more straightforward pick as he has batted at that position for India A recently.

Sarfaraz, on the other hand, has batted at No. 4 or below in almost all red-ball cricket. There have been rumors that his ability against pace has prevented him from being selected in the national side, but there is no obvious data to suggest that he is any less capable against the faster bowlers.

Considering that India need a No. 4 batter after Rahul's injury-enforced absence, Sarfaraz should be the frontrunner. In fact, even if No. 3 is the spot up for grabs, he is more than capable of filling in.

Both Patidar and Sarfaraz have done well lately, and there isn't much separating the two at all. However, it's arguable that the latter has more factors in his favor and deserves a maiden Test cap more.