IND vs ENG: Local Boy Srikar Bharat Set To Be Felicitated Ahead Of Vizag Test- Report

IND vs ENG: Srikar Bharat is all but guaranteed to feature in India's Playing 11 of the second Test match against England beginning on February 2.

Srikar Bharat is slated to become only the second cricketer from the state of Andhra Pradesh to play Test cricket at his home ground.

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With India deciding to include KL Rahul as a specialist batter in the first of the five-Test match series against England at home, there was a place in the side for wicketkeeper-batter Srikar Bharat in Hyderabad. Now with Rahul ruled out of the second Test match due to an injury concern, Bharat's place looks more or less guaranteed especially after the way he kept wickets at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

And now ahead of the second Test match at Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Vishakapatnam, it is now being learnt that the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) is planning a felicitation on Thursday (February 2) for their local hero Bharat who is slated to become only the second cricketer from the state of Andhra Pradesh to play Test cricket at his home ground. It is pertinent to note that only three cricketers from Andhra have gone on to represent India in the purest format of the game- MSK Prasad, Hanuma Vihari and now Bharat.

"Yes, we have planned a felicitation ceremony for Bharat," ACA secretary Gopinath Reddy told Cricketnext.com

"It will happen here in the stadium itself on the Upper Floor of the South Stand. We requested a time for 2nd Feb, but the Indian Team management has given time for the 1st, so we will he doing the felicitation on Thursday."

ACA Extends Invitation To Jay Shah

The same Cricketnext report has also claimed that the ACA has extended a formal invitation to the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Jay Shah for the second Test match. Shah was recently reappointed as the chairman of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) for a third consecutive term. Among other initiatives, the ACA has allowed free entry to school children and club cricketers for the Test match which will be the third Test at this venue and the first after 2019.