Who is Hanuma Vihari - Team India’s new player for England series

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday announced Indian national cricket team for the 4^th and 5^th Tests of India’s tour of England 2018. Young sensation Prithvi Shaw and a not so popular commodity Hanuma Vihari were the two new names who got their maiden national call-up.

While Shaw, skipper of India’s U19 team, became a household name after leading his side to a historic junior world cup victory earlier this year, Vihari is not a well-known name among Indian cricket fans. However, that doesn’t give us a true picture about his game and the Andhra Pradesh lad is a player worth investing in.

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Who is Hanuma Vihari? Here are five interesting facts about him

1. Hanuma Vihari is a regular in India A and plays for Andhra Pradesh in Ranji Trophy. He was the leading run scorer of the Ranji Trophy 2017/18 session.
2. Hanuma Vihari was also a part of India’s U19 squad that lifted the World Cup in 2012 under Unmukt Chand’s captaincy. He, however, could not boast off good numbers in the tournament and scored just 71 runs in 6 matches.
3. Although, Vihari didn’t have illustrious IPL career, he was picked up by SunRisers Hyderabad in 2013. And in his very second game for Hyderabad, he showed a glimpse of his all-rounder abilities and won the man of the match award.
4. Hanuma Vihari is also the only domestic non-regular off-break Indian bowler who dismissed Chris Gayle for a golden duck.
5. Hanuma Vihari was also a part of List A and first-class squads for India’s recent tour of England. This was the tour that changed his fortune and he made a strong case for national call-up scoring 291 runs in four matches, including a brilliant century in limited overs cricket.

In the recently concluded home series against South Africa in first-class format, Vihari scored a crucial fifty and played an impressive innings of 148.

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India’s squad for the fourth and fifth Tests against England (Bold): Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Hanuma Vihari.