After the first multi-day match between India A and England Lions ended in a draw, the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced the Indian team for the second and third matches of the series. The England Lions are touring India for the three-match series. All three matches will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
BCCI issued a press release and informed about the development of the same. Abhimanyu Easwaran will lead the India A team like in the first match, while Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Shams Mulani and Arshdeep Singh are the new names that have been added to the team. All these players were on national duty and were playing the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan.
BCCI announces India A team for second and third match against England Lions
The press release read: “The Men’s Selection Committee has chosen India’s ‘A’ team for the second and third multi-day match against the England Lions.”
India ‘A’ team for the second multi-day match: Abhimanyu Easwaran (Captain), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Tilak Varma, Kumar Kushagra, Washington Sundar, Sourabh Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Vidwath Kaverappa, Upendra Yadav, Akash Deep, Yash Dayal
India ‘A’ team for the third multi-day match: Abhimanyu Easwaran (Captain), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Kumar Kushagra, Washington Sundar, Shams Mulani, Arshdeep Singh, Tushar Deshpande, Vidwath Kaverappa, Upendra Yadav, Akash Deep, Yash Dayal
The England Lions showed a brilliant performance in the first multi-day match against India A and scored a total of 553/8 while batting first in the match. Keaton Jennings and captain Josh Bohannon smashed centuries and played innings of 154 and 125 respectively.
Batting in their first innings, India A closed with 227 runs and Rajat Patidar was the only bright spot in the innings. Patidar played 151 runs while no other batsman could leave any impact and was dismissed cheaply.
While batting in the third innings, the England Lions declared 163/6, with Keaton Jennings again being the leading run-scorer with 64 runs off 65 balls. At the end of the match, India A finished their fourth innings at 159/4, in which Sai Sudharsan and Sarfaraz Khan reached half-centuries.
The second and third matches of the series will be played from January 24 and February 1 respectively.
While the England Lions will play their second multi-day match against India A starting January 24, the England men’s Test team will also face Rohit Sharma’s India in the first Test of the five-match series starting on January 25 in Hyderabad.
In 2023, England’s final Test series was played against Australia. After losing the first two Tests of the five-match series, England bounced back to level the series with wins in the last two matches. Meanwhile, three days before the start of the India series, England made arrangements to camp in Abu Dhabi before traveling to India.
But the fundamental question that arises here is whether “bazball” will be effective in India or not. England head coach Brendon McCullum, nicknamed “Baz”, used to savagely attack opposition bowlers when he was a New Zealand player. However, the strategies may not be effective in India to change the pathways.