FEATURES
Follow UsHas Abhimanyu Easwaran batted himself out of BGT contention?
Ahead of the unofficial Test series against Australia ‘A’, Abhimanyu Easwaran was the runaway favourite to walk into India’s main XI as the spare batter in case one of the incumbents missed out.
But after four horror outings across Mackay and Melbourne, the 29-year-old might just have batted himself out of contention for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy despite being a part of the main squad.
The numbers tell the whole story: 4 innings, no scores over 20 and an average of 9.00.
But what might potentially hamper his chances is how he was like a deer caught in the headlights on the bouncy surfaces that were on offer, not facing more than 35 balls even once. Australia ‘A’ were a pacer short in the second innings at MCG - due to Michael Neser’s injury - yet Easwaran departed rather cheaply, falling to Nathan McAndrew for 17 off 31 balls.
The right-hander has now played 10 first-class games in ‘SENA’ countries and has just averaged 26.59, crossing the 50-run mark just thrice in 17 attempts.
These numbers don’t inspire confidence and thus there’s a good chance he might run the drinks for the entirety of the BGT, even if a couple of incumbents miss out due to various reasons.
KL Rahul could still get the nod in Perth despite twin failures
A couple of ‘ifs’ in play here, but *if* Rohit Sharma misses the first Test, and *if* the management opts to keep Shubman Gill at No.3 then KL Rahul might still end up getting the nod to open in Perth despite 4 & 10 against Australia ‘A’ at MCG.
Rahul was undone by a beauty by Scott Boland in the first innings, and he has now gone into the hall of shame on the back of the horror leave in the second, which has broken the internet.
But the right-hander still negated 43 balls of pace he faced in the second dig without trouble and showed very good patience and dexterity in challenging conditions, especially against someone like Boland.
Two things might work in Rahul’s favour ahead of Perth: one, his prior experience opening not only in Australia but other SENA countries, and two, how underwhelming his competitor Easwaran has looked.
If India opt to not tinker with Gill’s batting position, then Rahul might still be their best bet to open should Rohit be unavailable.
Dhruv Jurel a lock for the Perth Test, surely?
Regardless of who opens the batting in Rohit’s absence, it’s now gotten to a point where Dhruv Jurel *has* to be a lock in the XI for the first Test in Perth, either as a keeper or a specialist batter (Pant keeps if he plays as a batter; Pant plays as a batter if he keeps).
Funnily enough, Jurel was not in India A’s squad a week ago. However, after flying to Australia at the last minute to fit in an extra game, the 23-year-old was the standout batter across both sides in the second unofficial Test at MCG.
In the first innings, after being put into bat after losing the toss, India ‘A’ were reeling at 11/4 after 2.4 overs when Jurel walked in. Under immense pressure, with the Aussie quicks firing on all cylinders on a spicy MCG track, the right-hander showcased exceptional skill, discipline, patience and batsmanship to single-handedly drag the team to 161.
In that innings, Jurel scored 80 when no other Indian batter crossed 30. He faced 186 balls when the rest, put together, faced just 163 deliveries.
He was once again the team’s standout batter in the second innings, compiling a flawless 68 when the team was in tatters at 56/5, staring at a heavy defeat. Jurel nearly single-handedly put India 'A' in a position where they had the belief they could win the game.
At this point, if it’s indeed a toss-up between Jurel, Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan for the last middle-order batting spot, it’s hard to see how Jurel won’t make it ahead of the other two. He has already out-batted Rahul in a direct face-off and should surely be the preferred pick over Sarfaraz, who has no prior experience batting in Australia and will enter the BGT with zero match practice in pacy conditions.
Devdutt Padikkal exits Australia having raised his stocks
Devdutt Padikkal entered the Australia ‘A’ series with a pretty low profile, but he exceeded all expectations and turned out to be India’s most consistent batter across the series.
Padikkal amassed 151 runs in the four innings he batted — the most among all Indians in the series. In the fateful first innings in Mackay, where India ‘A’ got rolled over for 107, he top scored with 36 where four of the top seven batters perished for single digits, with Sai Sudharsan being the only other individual to cross double digits. He then backed it up with a very gritty 88 in the second dig, where he put together a 196-run stand with Sudharsan.
In the first innings at MCG, at 11/4, he dug the team out of trouble by stringing together a 53-run stand with Jurel.
Padikkal is undoubtedly a big positive that’s come out of this otherwise fateful tour for the visitors. He can be groomed for SENA tours going forward.
Nitish Reddy has potential but might not be ‘Test ready’ yet
Playing in Australia for the first time is an incredibly difficult task for even experienced batters, let alone youngsters still in their developmental stage. So it’s not a big surprise that the 21-year-old Nitish Reddy struggled to make an impact with the bat in the unofficial Test series, barring the 38 he scored in the third innings of the MCG game.
With the bat, Nitish showed flashes of brilliance throughout the series and some real spark in the aforementioned knock, where he put together a superb 94-run stand with Jurel with his side’s backs against the wall. But he still was found wanting against the quicks, particularly versus the short ball. Thrice in the series the 21-year-old perished to balls that were either bouncers or one that reared off the wicket.
With the ball, despite bowling some very impressive tight lines, he wasn’t able to make much penetration, finishing with one wicket at an average of 80.00.
So, while Nitish unquestionably has potential, it just might be far too soon to throw him into the deep end and ask him to impact the BGT against an intimidating Aussie side.
Mukesh Kumar makes a strong case to be added to the BGT squad
In a way, these two unofficial Tests were set to decide the pecking order of the reserve seamers who were picked as standbys for the BGT. Fair to say that Mukesh Kumar has won that battle by a considerable margin.
Across the two games, Mukesh took more wickets (11) than any other bowler and finished the series with an average of 16.18, with the highlight being the six-for he took in the first innings in Mackay.
The right-armer didn’t just take wickets; he delivered some massive blows. Mukesh accounted for Sam Konstas's wickets twice in the first game, and he also dismissed the in-form Beau Webster. In the second game, he struck a decisive blow by sending the in-form Nathan McSweeney, who has been the talk of the town, packing with a beauty that caught the outside edge of the right-hander - not once but twice.
On surfaces that offer pace and bounce, you don’t need to be a tearaway bowler to find success. Mukesh showed just that across the two unofficial Tests.
Prasidh might just have bowled himself into the XI for Perth
Like Jurel, another individual that made the fullest use of the opportunity he was provided was Prasidh Krishna. Added in as a late replacement for Yash Dayal, the lanky seamer bowled multiple hostile spells and finished the series with 10 wickets at 17.30 a piece.
He saved his best for the last, bowling an outrageous new-ball spell on the third day at MCG, where he dismissed both Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft for golden ducks in consecutive deliveries. At the end of the new-ball burst, Prasidh’s figures read 4-0-6-2; the Aussies breathed a huge sigh of relief when he was taken out of the attack.
With India likely to go with four seamers in Perth, Prasidh might just slot in as the fourth pacer behind Bumrah, Siraj and Akash Deep. It’s a toss-up between him and Harshit Rana, but he has an edge over the latter in the sense that he has both red-ball match practice and the experience of now having bowled in Australian conditions.
If you’ve not downloaded the Cricket.com app yet, you’re missing out on our content — big time. Download the App here
