Puducherry: Young fast bowlers Gurjapneet Singh, Arshad Khan and Yash Thakur will be eager to prove their mettle and be seen as the answer to the senior side’s current resource scarcity in the pace department when India A take on Australia A in a three-match one-day series starting here on Tuesday.
The series garnered a lot of attention as it was supposed to be flamboyant superstar Hardik Pandya’s return to competitive cricket but a right shin injury has ruled him out for an indefinite period.
As far as seam a bowling all-rounder is concerned, Indian cricket doesn’t have multiple options with Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Suryansh Shedge being the top three right now.
Shedge, who had just completed his rehab at the Centre of Excellence, has replaced Pandya in the India A side.
Naman Dhir, who has now linked up with India seniors for the T20s, has been replaced by the ever-improving Anukul Roy.
The Ruturaj Gaikwad-led side is a star-studded batting unit with the skipper himself, Devdutt Padikkal, B Sai Sudharsan and Rajat Patidar all having played for the senior national team.
However, for the national selectors led by Pragyan Ojha, the bigger concern is the search for good ODI bowlers coming through pathways teams.
One interesting aspect of the India A team is that both Gurjapneet and Arshad are left-arm seamers while Yash is a right-armer.
During India A’s tri-series in Sri Lanka, Arshad bowled fantastically at the death overs and can also bat a bit lower down the order which makes him an interesting proposition.
All three have very decent List A records although Gurjapneet (9 games, 17 wickets) and Arshad (11 games, 15 wickets) haven’t played as much as Thakur (57 games, 90 wickets).
However all three have an economy rate of less than 6 runs per over which is impressive considering the restrictions that come with the ODI format.
It would be interesting to see how they measure up against a line-up that features players like Sam Konstas, and Nathan McSweeney, both of whom have played for their national side.
The new crop of bowlers like Auqib Nabi and Anshul Kamboj have failed to impress on their respective ODI debuts.
Gurnoor Brar is still a work in progress, Prasidh Krishna has been erratic, Mohammed Siraj has lost his form and Harshit Rana has remained perennially injured.
In this backdrop, the pace troika might just want to prove itself and send some feelers to the national selection committee ahead of the ODI leg for the tour of New Zealand.
Save Jasprit Bumrah, none of the Indian pacers are confirmed selections for that tour.
Squads:
India A: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Devdutt Padikkal, B Sai Sudharsan, Priyansh Arya, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Suryansh Shedge, Rajat Patidar, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Arshin Kulkarni, Nishant Sindhu, Vipraj Nigam, Yash Thakur, Gurjapneet Singh, Arshad Khan, Anukul Roy.
Australia: Aaron Hardie, Sam Konstas, Nathan McSweeney, Lachlan Shaw, Riley Meredith, Ben Dwarshuis, Nikhil Chaudhary, Mahli Beardman, Mitch Owen, Jack Edwards, Tanveer Sangha, Spencer Johnson, Todd Murphy, Will Sutherland.
