The focus was on Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal at the practice session here on Friday. In recent times, the two have been making runs across all formats and caught the attention of the fans, and the discerning.
The two have impressed the national selectors who are perhaps inclined to look at options before the four-Test series in Australia. The failure of two of the three openers on the England tour has demanded a change.
On the eve of the two-day warm-up game against the West Indies, led by Jason Holder, the BCCI President’s XI skipper Karun Nair, India’s newest middle-order batsman Hanuma Vihari and two other entertaining batsmen, Shreyas Iyer and Ankit Bawne, made the most of the only practice session.
But for obvious reasons, the focus was on Shaw and Mayank, with the Karnataka right-hander padding up a second time. The Indian batsmen will be up against the likes of fast bowlers Shannon Gabriel, Holder and Kemar Roach.
There is a buzz in the cricketing grapevine that Shaw will make his Test debut against the West Indies at Rajkot and that Mayank too will make the cut.
The hunt for a new opener began when the selectors dropped M. Vijay after his poor show in England. Vijay has been in good nick for Essex in the English County championship, but few are willing to predict his return.
Poor run of openers
Vijay’s opening partner Shikhar Dhawan also did not have a good run in the four Tests he played in England. K.L. Rahul, filling in for Vijay, was far from spectacular, but he has regained the trust of the team management and the selectors when he made 37 and 149 in the last Test at the Oval.
Mayank has piled up runs (1171 runs in the 2017-18 season and 375 in three A Test matches against South Africa this home season) and he would be fancying his chances.
When asked if Shaw and Agarwal were a bit anxious, Karun said: “Not at all. They have been playing so well over the last one year. They are looking forward to another match. Everyone in the team is pretty excited. It’s learning curve for all of us.”
The teams (from):
BCCI President’s XI: Karun Nair (capt.) Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Hanuma Vihari, Shreyas Iyer, Ankit Bawne, Smit Patel, Jalaj Saxena, Saurabh Kumar, Basil Thampi, Avesh Khan, K. Vignesh and Ishan Porel.
West Indies: Jason Holder (capt.), Sunil Ambris, Devendra Bishoo, Kraigg Brathwaite, Roston Chase, Shane Dowrich, Shannon Gabriel, Jahmar Hamilton, Shimron Hetmyer, Shai Hope, Sherman Lewis, Keemo Paul, Kieran Powell, Kemar Roach and Jomel Warrican .
