BCCI Announces India A Squad For 2nd And 3rd Unofficial Test Against England Lions

After the first multi-day match between India A and England Lions ended in a draw, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has announced India‘s squad for the 2nd and 3rd matches of the series. England Lions are touring India for the three-match series. All three games will be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

BCCI issued a press release and informed about the development for the same. Abhimanyu Easwaran will be leading the India A team just like the first match whereas, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Shams Mulani, and Arshdeep Singh are the new names who have been added to the squad. All these players were on national duty and were playing the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan.

BCCI announce India A squad for the 2nd and 3rd match against England Lions

The press release read, “The Men’s Selection Committee has picked India ‘A’ squad for the second and third multi-day matches against England Lions.”

India ‘A’ squad for the 2^nd 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’ squad for the 3^rd 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

England Lions displayed a brilliant performance in the first multi-day match against India A and put up 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 were wrapped up for 227 runs with Rajat Patidar being the only shining aspect in the innings. Patidar played a knock of 151 runs whereas no other batsman was able to leave any impact and were dismissed cheaply.

While batting in the third innings, England Lions declared at 163/6, with Keaton Jennings being the top run scorer again with 64 runs from 65 balls. At the end of the match, India A ended their fourth innings at 159/4 wherein Sai Sudharsan and Sarfaraz Khan hit half-centuries.

The second and the third match of the series will be played from 24 January and 1 February respectively.

While England Lions will play their second multi-day match against India A from January 24, England’s men’s Test side will also be up against Rohit Sharma’s India in the first Test of the five-match series from January 25 in Hyderabad.

In 2023, England’s final Test series was played against Australia. Having lost the opening two Tests of the five-match series, England rallied to level the series with victories in the final two games. Meanwhile, three days before the commencement of the India series, England arranged to camp out in Abu Dhabi before traveling to India.

But the fundamental query that emerges here is whether or not “bazball” will be effective in India. England’s head coach Brendon McCullum, nicknamed “Baz,” used to savage opposition bowlers when he was a New Zealand player. The strategies might not be effective in India, though, for turning tracks.