India vs England: Two debutants impress on the undercard on day reserved for main act

Normal. You know what’s normal? Changing your clothes once a day. Or brushing your teeth twice a day.

You know what isn’t normal?

Walking out to bat for India for the first time after turning 30. Sleeping peacefully on the night before your big morning.

For Rajat Patidar, though, it was ‘normal’. “I slept well last night,” he told the media after Day One of the second Test against England. When he was asked to describe what he felt as he was walking out to bat, he termed it ‘normal’. “Going into the middle, there was no pressure as I have played lots of domestic cricket,” he said. “It was normal.”

It sort of explains not just him but his family. They are laid back and have been that way for a long time. “If he doesn’t make his debut tomorrow (Friday), then he will play for India some other day,” was how Manohar, Rajat’s father, put it to this daily. The family in fact is busy with the wedding of Rajat’s cousin these days.

Considering this management – like the previous regime – has placed an emphasis on seniority and first-come-first-serve, Patidar was always going to be given a debut as soon as KL Rahul withdrew after the first Test. So it transpired when Zaheer Khan handed him his shiny India cap less than an hour before the start of play.