Last Updated:
Five Indian players picked for the highly-anticipated Border Gavaskar Trophy, including, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Eashwaran, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Prasidh Krishna played a part in India A’s defeats.
Dhruv Jurel. (X)
India A suffered a 6-wicket loss against Australia A at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds in the second unofficial Test between the sides on Saturday to pile more misery on the side that had succumbed to the hosts’ second-string lineup in a 7-wicket defeat in the first unofficial Test at Queensland.
Five Indian players picked for the highly-anticipated Border Gavaskar Trophy, including, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Eashwaran, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Prasidh Krishna played a part in India A’s defeats.
KL Rahul
The biggest name on the list is undoubtedly that of the Karnataka batter, who has been in the Indian fold for a long time now. The classy batter who has demonstrated his abilities with the willow on home soil and in overseas conditions multiple times in his career has been in a rut of late and needs to come up with a statement performance if the Indian side are to put up a fight down under.
However, his performances for India A against the Australian second-string side in the unofficial Test have offered little to no encouragement.
Rahul opened the innings in the second unofficial Test, alongside Abhimanyu Eashwaran, and was sent back to the hut before he could get his eye in.
Rahul edged one behind to wicketkeeper, Jimmy Pierson, off Scott Boland for a run-a-ball 4 runs innings.
He looked to turn things around in the second iteration of the game as withstood the Australian bowling attack for 44 deliveries this time, but could only manage 10 runs before he fell prey to Corey Rocchioccoli.
Abhimanyu Eashwaran
The 29-year-old West Bengal batter, who has been named in the squad to take on the Australian main side could not make a mark on the unofficial series despite opening the innings both times in each fixture.
The top-order batter was dismissed for a paltry 7 runs off just 30 deliveries in the first innings of the opening game as he fell to Jordan Buckingham, before barely improving on his showing in the second innings with 12 runs off 32 deliveries before Buckingham caught him sort of the crease.
The batter, who looked on better his performances in the second unofficial Test, could not even get off the mark in the first innings as he Michael Neser scalped the Indian after just three deliveries.
Eashwaran added 17 runs in the second innings off 31 deliveries in the second innings before falling to Nathan McAndrew.
Dhruv Jurel
The shining light in the second unofficial Test defeat to the Australian A side was the wicketkeeper-batter’s impressive performance in the middle order whilst his teammates fell like nine-pins to the hosts’ lethal bowling attack.
The 23-year-old batter top-scored for the side in both innings’ with half-centuries as he stood as the lone ranger against the Aussie pacers.
Jurel scored nearly half of his side’s tally in the first innings with an 80-run knock before being outdone by Nathan McSweeney. He remained at the crease facing 186 deliveries and picked up 6 fours and a couple of sixers.
The player from Agra doubled down on his showing in the second innings with yet another fifty as he added 68 runs in 122 deliveries to demonstrate incredible tenacity and fight.
Prasidh Krishna
The seamer was part of both the unofficial Tests against the Aussie A unit and marked the first fixture with a 3-wicket showing in the first innings as he bowled at an economy of just under 3.3. He leaked 59 runs in his 18-over spell, before adding another wicket to his tally in the second innings in which he bettered his economy at 2.07 across the 13 overs he bowled.
The 28-year-old picked up on his lessons from the opening game and implemented his learnings with a four-wicket haul in the first innings of the second game at an economy of 3.12 in his 16 overs, before returning with 2 more wickets in the second innings in his 12 overs.
Nitish Kumar Reddy
The all-rounder was given a biting welcome to Australian soil as he fell for a duck to Brendon Docggett in the first innings of the opening unofficial Test, before managing to pick up a solitary wicket with the ball.
He scored 17 runs with the bat in the second innings before falling to a Beau Webster caught and bowled, and could make an impact with the ball.
In the second fixture against Australia A, Nitish Kumar put up 16 runs off 35 deliveries in the first innings before Webster sent him back to the hut. The all-rounder from Vishakapatnam fared a bit better in the second innings adding 38 runs and surviving 81 deliveries ahead of falling prey to Webster yet again. The medium-pacer could not pick up any wickets in either innings.
