The Indian team is in the middle of a series against the West Indies. On Tuesday, the cream of Indian cricket minus the 16 on National duty will get ready to battle it out for the Deodhar Trophy and, going by the names likely to be on display, the competition is likely to be far more intense at the Ferozeshah Kotla here.
The stakes are higher, too. With the World Cup in 2019 being the big target, every limited-over game and tournament, domestic or international, is now a virtual selection trial.
Before that, however, will be the tour of Australia and New Zealand starting next month and for many of the names in the fray over the next five days, a good outing here might well pave the way to further success.
Tuesday will see the Dinesh Karthik-led India-A take on Shreyas Iyer’s India-B, with both teams overflowing with proven performers targeting a return and young hopefuls biding their time.
On Monday, however, none of the five Mumbai players turned up for practice — perhaps still recovering from their Vijay Hazare victory — even as the rest, including Karthik and R. Ashwin, put in the hard yards in the sun.
The third team in the fray will be led by Ajinkya Rahane.
Good balance
Ashwin and Karthik headline India-A’s experience department with Siddarth Kaul and Md. Siraj spearheading the pace attack. Highly-rated Anmolpreet Singh will be hoping to showcase his range while Karun Nair, perennially on the bench with the Indian team, will be grateful for some time in the middle.
Shreyas Gopal and Krunal Pandya lead the spin department for what is clearly the most balanced of the three sides.
India-B, on the other hand, has more names knocking on the National door with enough domestic runs and wickets under their belt.
Mayank Agarwal, with tons of runs across formats for the past two years, will also be looking to finally impress the selectors for a look-in.
The teams (from):
India-A: Dinesh Karthik (Capt.), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ankeet Bawane, Dhawal Kulkarni, Karun Nair, Shreyas Gopal, Krunal Pandya, R. Ashwin, Nitish Rana, Siddarth Kaul, Prithvi Shaw, Md. Siraj, Anmolpreet Singh and Shams Mulani.
India-B: Shreyas Iyer (Capt.), Ankush Bains, Manoj Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem, Hanuma Vihari, Varun Aaron, Mayank Markande, Deepak Chahar, Prashant Chopra, K. Gowtham, Mayank Agarwal, Rohit Rayudu, Jaydev Unadkat and Rituraj Gaikwad .
