Doha: Teen batting sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi will be aiming to keep the entire Pakistan Shaheens attack on tenterhooks even as the India A side, led by Jitesh Sharma, continues to follow BCCI’s ‘No Handshake’ policy against the arch-rivals in a Rising Stars Asia Cup T20 match here on Sunday.
During the Asia Cup in September, India’s T20 skipper Suryakumar Yadav didn’t shake hands with Salman Ali Agha as a show of solidarity for victims of the Pahalgam terror attack.
And Jitesh Sharma, who was the second wicketkeeper in that tournament and is captain of India A in ongoing event is expected to follow his senior’s footsteps and not shake hands with Pakistan Shaheens skipper Irfan Khan either at toss or after the match.
However, the cynosure of all attention will be Suryavanshi, the 14-year-old, who had taken world cricket by storm with a century during the last edition of the IPL. He smashed an incredible 144 off 52 balls with 15 sixes against UAE and became the youngest Indian batter to score a hundred in senior international representative (A team) cricket.
But India A head coach Sunil Joshi will be quick to remind that the Shaheens attack in terms of quality will be way better compared to UAE, who don’t have a lot of quality in their second-string team.
For Pakistan, the main challenge will come from right-arm pacer Ubaid Shah, who incidentally is the younger brother of senior international Naseem Shah.
Since this is a T20 tournament, the India A team is full of young IPL stars while Pakistan Shaheens comprises of all those who have been performers in the Pakistan Super League.
However, in terms of playing senior internationals for India, there are only two players in skipper Jitesh and all-rounder Ramandeep Singh, who have played T20Is for India. But the likes of Priyansh Arya, Nehal Wadhera, Naman Dhir are all bonafide IPL stars in their own rights and give the ‘A’ team a formidable look.
For Shaheens, skipper Irfan has played nine ODIs but hardly got any success.
