Kotian is expected to fly to Melbourne on Tuesday following Ashwin’s retirement at the end of the third Test in Brisbane. He is currently in Ahmedabad as part of the Mumbai squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
The fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starts on Thursday with the five-match series level 1-1. Kotian is expected to be back-up for Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja, the two spinners in the squad, with Axar Patel unavailable.
When asked a day after Kotian’s call-up, Rohit Sharma joked: “Tanush was here a month back [with India A], and Kuldeep [Yadav] I don’t think has a visa… we wanted somebody to get here as quickly as possible. Tanush was the one who was ready and he played here.”
“Tanush was the right option for us at this point. He’s certainly shown in the domestic level what he’s capable of. He’s probably one of the reasons why Mumbai has gone on to win the Ranji Trophy last year. He played a major role as an allrounder, so a very good option for us”
Rohit Sharma
Rohit quickly clarified that he had been joking, and elaborated: “Not that Tanush is not good enough. He’s shown in the last two years what he’s done in domestic cricket. And we really wanted just a back-up in case we need two spinners playing here [MCG] or Sydney. You need a back-up option.
“Kuldeep of course is not 100% fit. He went through a hernia surgery. And the other options, like Axar – Axar had a baby, so he’s not going to travel. Tanush was the right option for us at this point. He’s certainly shown in the domestic level what he’s capable of. He’s probably one of the reasons why Mumbai has gone on to win the Ranji Trophy last year. He played a major role as an allrounder, so a very good option for us.”
Kotian, 26, has played 33 first-class games and taken 101 wickets at an average of 25.70. He has also scored 1525 runs in 47 innings, at 41.21 with two centuries and 13 fifties. He was part of India A’s tour of Australia that preceded the Border-Gavaskar Trophy – he played one match, scoring 44 runs and taking one wicket.
As Rohit mentioned, Kotian had played a massive part in Mumbai’s victorious 2023-24 Ranji Trophy campaign, scoring 502 runs at an average of 41.83 and picking up 29 wickets at an average of 16.96, which earned him the Player-of-the-Tournament award. Kotian was the only player to complete the season double of 500 runs and 25 wickets.
In the ongoing Ranji Trophy, which is being played in two phases with the T20 and List A tournaments in between, Kotian has played two of Mumbai’s five matches, as he was away in Australia. He has been on target with the ball, picking up 12 wickets at an average of 16.66, but hasn’t had much luck with the bat, scoring 30 runs from three innings. His most recent performance of note, though, had come with the bat, when he scored 64 and 114 not out, both from No. 8, in Mumbai’s Irani Cup win over Rest of India in early October. He took three wickets in his only bowling innings in that game too.
Kotian and Manav Suthar, the 22-year-old left-arm spin-bowling allrounder from Rajasthan, are thought of as the next in line when it comes to the India Test set-up, with 31-year-old Saurabh Kumar of Uttar Pradesh possibly having fallen behind in the race. Kotian and Suthar played one game each on that tour of Australia with India A.
India’s squad for fourth and fifth Tests
Rohit Sharma (capt), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Devdutt Padikkal, Tanush Kotian
