Melbourne. On the first day of the second unofficial Test match against Australia A, India A batsmen looked helpless in front of Australian bowler Michael Neeser (four wickets) and their innings was reduced to just 161 runs in 57.1 overs. Barring wicketkeeperbatsman Dhruv Jurel, all the players who are in contention for a place in the Indian XI for the first BorderGavaskar Trophy Test to be played in Perth disappointed.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma may be absent from the first Test due to personal reasons, so the Indian team management is looking for an opening partner for Yashasvi Jaiswal. Keeping this in view, KL Rahul was already sent to Australia for this match and he opened in this match. However, in the second over of the match, he was caught behind the wicket while trying to block an outgoing full ball from Scott Boland and was out after scoring only four runs. In the series against New Zealand, Rahul was able to play only one match and was dropped from the team due to poor form. The experiment of making Rahul open failed in the first innings, which will definitely be a matter of concern for the Indian team management.
Abhimanyu Easwaran, another main contender to replace Rohit Sharma, has also disappointed on the Australia A tour so far. Abhimanyu, who was coming after scoring four centuries in four consecutive matches in India's domestic season, could not play Neeser's bouncy shortlength ball on the third ball of the innings and was caught at gully with the score of zero. Even in the first unofficial test, Abhimanyu's performance was nothing special and he returned to the pavilion with scores of 7 and 12. There Abhimanyu looked helpless on the good length balls coming out of the channel of the off stump.
On the fast pitch of Perth, it is possible that the Indian team will go with three fast bowlers as well as one fast bowling allrounder. Shardul Thakur has been performing this responsibility in the last few years in away Test matches, but this time the selectors have given a chance to young Nitish Kumar Reddy. However, Reddy has also not been able to do anything special in this series against Australia A so far. In the last match, Reddy had scored 0 and 17, while he got only one wicket after bowling both the innings. He was troubled by the bouncy short pitch balls at Mackay.
However, in the second unofficial Test in Melbourne, he lost his wicket by playing a very strange shot. When he came to bat, the Indian team was struggling, losing 5 wickets for 64 runs. Reddy (16) tried to salvage the Indian innings by making a 39run partnership for the sixth wicket with Jurel, but just when he looked to be holding on, he took a walk on an outgoing good length ball from Bo Webster and Caught behind the wicket.
However, Jurel, who joined this team just two days ago, has definitely given a ray of hope by scoring 80 runs. Amidst the continuous falling of wickets, he held one end and took India A beyond first 100 and then 150. Jurel's composed innings of 186 balls included 6 excellent fours and 2 sixes and he was out as the ninth wicket.
Given the excellent form of Rishabh Pant, it seems very difficult for Jurel to be included in the Indian XI as a wicketkeeper, but with his innings he has staked his claim to be included in the team as a pure batsman. Given the poor form of Rahul, Easwaran and Sarfaraz Khan, this middleorder possibility cannot be ruled out, although the Indian team would still be trying to find a replacement for Rohit as an opening batsman.
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Image Credit: KhasKhabar.