Internet Desk: Australia will start their campaign in India with a three-day warm-up game against a talented bunch of India A players on Friday. Power hitter Hardik Pandya will lead India A side and he would want to make a name for himself in Test match selection, which will start from February 23 in Pune.
Hardik is well known as a limited overs expert, has improved a lot as a seamer and a good show in the warm-up game may force skipper Virat Kohli and coach Anil Kumble to keep him in their plans when they sit around for a discussion on playing during first two Test matches.
Against a tough side like Australia, the performers at the domestic level will get a chance to test themselves against the likes of Josh Hazlewood or Mitchell Starc if Steve Smith and Darren Lehmann decides to give them a few overs.
Opener Priyank Panchal of Gujarat, who has had a phenomenal season backed up by a century against Bangladesh in the previous warm-up game will also like to remain in selector’s radar for the slot of reserve opener.
This is the only practice game for the visitors and they would like to make full use of it with batsmen getting some good time out there in the middle and bowlers loosening up with some overs.
The home team has some other exciting young players such as the hard-hitting ex-India U-19 World Cup batsmen Rishabh Pant of Delhi and Ishan Kishan who were part of North and East Zones in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Inter-Zonals at the nearby Wankhede Stadium.
Both can keep wickets as well as bat flamboyantly but it’s Jharkhand’s Kishan, who led the country in the Junior World Cup last year in Bangladesh, who has been chosen as the wicket keeper for the game.
Then there are others like Mumbai’s highly rated batsman Shreyas Iyer and his teammate Akhil Herwadkar, who is expected to open the innings with the in-form Panchal.
Iyer had scored over 1300 runs at one-down while guiding Mumbai to their 41st Ranji title last season but has had a dip in form this season, while Panchal, with a plus 1300 aggregate, led Gujarat to their maiden national crown this season.
In the middle-order there’s Maharashtra’s Ankit Bawne, an experienced campaigner although his is just 24, along with Tamil Nadu s Baba Indrajit who may not get a chance to make the eleven as the match is to be held strictly as a first-class game, according to visiting team s coach Darren Lehmann.
“Proper first-class game,” was the way Lehmann put it when asked at the media conference here two days ago.
That eliminates the prospect of testing all the players at some stage of the game or the other as has been the practice in recent times.