5 Indian players who were picked for the first time in a Test series vs England

The Indian Test squad that was picked for the first three Tests to face England had a lot of familiar names which audience around the world had gotten familiar with. The likes of Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli and many others are not unknown commodities for anyone and is it well known to all what they are capable of.

However, the team did have one new face, as far as the longer format is concerned. 20-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant earned his maiden call-up to the Test squad on the back of an excellent IPL and impressive performances with the 'A' side and will be the backup gloveman to the first choice at the position, Dinesh Karthik.

Pant joined a select group of Indian players, who received their maiden call-up on a tour to England. Here are five others who also got called up for the first time on a tour to England:

Parthiv Patel

Like Pant, Parthiv Patel also was called up for the first time to India's Test squad during the 2002 tour to England. The then 17-year-old's selection in the team raised a lot of eyebrows, but that didn't deter Sourav Ganguly and the management and they even went on to hand him his Test debut in the second match of that series at Trent Bridge.

The left-hander found instant praise from many quarters for the way he helped India save the game in the second innings and was persisted with for future series as well.

However, once MS Dhoni arrived on the scene, he and many others found themselves out of favour from the side and it was only in November 2016 that he made a comeback to the side.

Anil Kumble

A bespectacled Anil Kumble was picked for the first time for an Indian Test tour in 1990

The year was 1990 and India were on their way to England, in their defence of the Test series that they had won in 1986.

The squad was a mixture of youth and experience and one man who was on his first ever Test trip with the senior team was Anil Kumble, who later made his debut at Old Trafford.

Bespectacled at the time, he had a forgettable outing with the ball in the game but did manage to claim his first Test scalp, that of Allan Lamb.

Little did we know what a colossal figure he would turn out to be in the history of Indian cricket, in the years to come.

Stuart Binny

Binny was selected as the seam bowling option in 2014

During the time MS Dhoni was at the helm, one of his most sought-after type of players was a seam-bowling all-rounder. In Stuart Binny, he and the management felt they had found someone who could do that role in the side.

He was picked in the side that toured England for the Test series in 2014 and made his debut in the first Test, where he made a match-winning 78 that also confirmed a place for him in the next Test at Lord's.

He was persisted with for a while before being replaced by Hardik Pandya at the beginning of 2016.

Sourav Ganguly

Ganguly made an instant impression on the tour to England in 1996

Post the 1996 World Cup, India made two important decisions which were to shape its future. One of those was to pick Sourav Ganguly, who had already made his ODI debut in India's tour to Australia in 1991-92 but had to wait for four more years to make his Test debut, which came at Lord's.

But what a start it turned out to be. Ganguly joined a select group of cricketers to score a hundred in his first ever Test innings, in front of a packed house at the home of cricket.

It was the start of a career which had so many ups-and-downs as Ganguly created a legacy for himself in the history of Indian cricket.

Rahul Dravid

Dravid made an immediate impression on his first trip to England

The second of those decisions that India made in 1996 was to pick Rahul Dravid as the backup middle-order batsman. It was a much-deserved call-up for Dravid, who had been among the runs for Karnataka in the domestic circuit and was close to getting picked for the national team for the 1996 World Cup in the sub-continent.

However, that did not turn out to be the case and with Ganguly, Dravid was India's second debutant in the game and he too made an impression, falling five short of his maiden Test ton.

Like Ganguly, Dravid was to have a great impact in Indian cricket during the course of his career and continues to do so even after his retirement.