Who is Priyank Panchal? Know all about batsman who replaced injured Rohit Sharma in India test squad for SA series

Priyank Panchal has replaced injured vice-captain Rohit Sharma in India's Test squad for the South Africa tour. Rohit had sustained a left hamstring injury during his training session in Mumbai on December 13th and has been ruled out of India's upcoming 3-match Test series against South Africa.

This would be Priyank Panchal's second call up into the Indian Test Squad, as he was a part of India's extended squad as a standby player for the 4-match Test series against England at home. Priyank Panchal is one of the best opening batsman in domestic cricket. He has played over in 100 First-class cricket matches and scored over 7000 runs, which includes 24 centuries and 25 fifties. 

The 31-year-old had also recently played for India A in South Africa. If he is included in the playing XI, it would be his debut test match as a part of the Indian senior men's cricket team. He will be the third specialist opener in India's Test squad for the South Africa tour besides KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal. 

Priyank Panchal replaces injured Rohit Sharma in India's Test squad. Rohit sustained a left hamstring injury during his training session here in Mumbai yesterday. He has been ruled out of the upcoming 3-match Test series against South Africa: BCCI pic.twitter.com/qoo0qG1AIj

— ANI (@ANI) December 13, 2021

Who is Priyank Panchal?

•  Priyank Panchal has been a regular performer in India's domestic circuit. He has been the captain and top scorer for the Gujarat Ranji Trophy team for several years. He has also played for India A team and led them during their three-match series against South Africa A earlier this month. 

•  The 31-year-old has both experience and form, as he has played in over 100 first-class games. He is known to be one of the best opening batsmen in domestic cricket. 

•  He is also a part-time right-arm medium pace bowler and has taken 22 wickets. 

•  He had led Gujarat's Ranji team to pick up their maiden Ranji Trophy title in the 2016-17 season and was the leading run-scorer with 1300 runs.

•  He finished as the team's leading scorer with 542 runs in seven matches in the next Ranji Trophy season (2017-18) as well. 

•  He scored a whopping 898 runs in nine matches in the 2018-19 Ranji trophy season and scored another 367 runs in 8 matches in the Vijay Hazare trophy the same year. 

•  He has worked closely with India's current head coach Rahul Dravid while playing for India A team. 

•  He holds the record for making maximum runs by any batsman in first-class cricket in India since the 2016-17 season. 

Priyank Panchal Career Stats

Matches- 100

Runs scored-7011

50s- 25

100s- 24 centuries 

Best Score- 314 not out