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Uncapped England spinner Tom Hartley feels that selectors took a bit of a gamble by selecting him for the five-Test series against India. Hartley is ecstatic to make his Test debut and aims to repay selectors' faith in him despite an unimpressive record in the County Championship. The 24-year-old claimed that his bowling style is similar to Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja.
"With the conditions being completely different to English conditions, they've really analysed what has done well in India and what will do well," Hartley told the PA news agency.
"It's nice to see people recognise that I might be the bowler to go out in India and do well. When people have confidence in you like that, it's fantastic.
"I just feel all that confidence has been passed on to me and I can't wait to go out there. My stats might not be the best in championship cricket but I bowl very similar to Axar and Jadeja.
"They're taking a bit of a punt but I feel like I've proved myself in the training camps that I've been on and I deserve to get a go."
The Lancashire-born bowler has 40 wickets from 20 games. In the last year's County Championship, he took 19 wickets. He made his ODI debut against Ireland last year but remained wicketless.
"Although I haven't played much cricket out there, I'm going with a feeling of what I need to bowl. I see a lot of similarities between my white-ball bowling here and red-ball bowling out there," he said.
"I feel like the pace, the revs you want to put on it and the shape of the ball will be very similar to white-ball areas – you just want to bowl that little bit fuller.
"As much as Indian batters are good players of spin, the conditions should be in my favour. You've just got to try not to over-complicate things and keep things simple and keep the stumps in play.
"India's spinners are great but can we perform as well as them. There will be a lot of fight in us. I won't be playing as a frontline spinner, so there won't be tons of pressure on me."
Apart from Hartley, Shoaib Bashir is another uncapped spinner in the 16-member squad. Jack Leach and Rehan Ahmed are the other two spinners who will be travelling to India. The Test series will begin in Hyderabad on January 25.
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