India A will lock horns with South Africa A for the second unofficial test in the ongoing A series tour in South Africa.
India A will lock horns with South Africa A for the second unofficial test in the ongoing A series tour in South Africa. The second test gets underway at the LC de Villiers Oval in Pretoria on Saturday. The same venue had hosted few onedayers in the tri series between India, Australia and South Africa. All the matches were run fest here, so it would be interesting to see how the pitch plays in the four day encounter.
Pujara & Co. would be upbeat after their performance in the first test where they comprehensively beat the hosts by an innings and 13 runs. The win was set up by good batting displays by Pujara, Raina & Rohit Sharma and ably supported in the bowling department by medium pacer Ishwar Pandey and Shami Ahmed. Pandey and Ahmed picked up 3 and 4 wickets in the second innings to help India A beat South Africa A.
Now in this match, the focus would be on other players who missed out on performing in the first test. The likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane would like to prove their worth in the team and impress the selectors. Vijay in particular will have his hands full as he hasn’t performed to his potential in recent times. With Rohit Sharma performing well, the pressure will be on Vijay to score runs and secure his place as a test opener alongside Shikhar Dhawan.
There is always a back up keeper that travels with the team on overseas tours. Dinesh Karthick is in the driving seat to get that place when the South Africa tour happens in November. But, Wriddhiman Saha would like to stake a claim and make it difficult for the selectors to chose. Saha will be hoping to score runs and impress in his keeping skills to gain some self confidence.
On the bowling front, Ishwar Pandey would like to repeat his performance from the first test and his pace partner Shami Ahmed would be hoping to add few wickets in his tally as well. Left arm pacer, Jaydev Unadkat performed well in the Zimbabwe series, but picked up only one wicket in the first test. He too would be hoping to prove a point and bowl well. In the spin department, Shahbaz Nadeem played the last test; however, the conditions in South Africa are not spinner friendly, so one cannot expect much from Nadeem. Parveez Rasool is in the squad as the other spinner and chances are that team management might give the J&K spinner a go in the second match.
Probable Line Up:
Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Puraja (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Ishwar Pandey, Shami Ahmed, Jaydev Unadkat & Parveez Rasool.
Let’s see if India A is able to continue with their form in the second test and return home with both the tri series as well as the test series trophies!
