Seasoned batter K.L. Rahul and wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel have been added to the India A squad for the second four-day game against Australia A, starting at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Thursday. IANS had reported on Monday that Rahul and Jurel would link up with the India A team after leaving for Melbourne following the third Test against New Zealand, which the Rohit Sharma-led side lost by 25 runs to suffer a historic 3-0 defeat.
Sources had also said that the decision to send Rahul and Jurel to play for India A team was made with an eye to give the duo some game time ahead of the all-important Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, starting in Perth on November 22. It is also believed that Rahul might open alongside Abhimanyu Easwaran, as the Indian team would be keen to see who would be the best person to partner Yashasvi Jaiswal in the Perth Test.
The vacancy at the top comes especially after captain Rohit Sharma said at the end of the Mumbai Test that he could be unavailable for the series opener at Perth due to personal reasons.
While Easwaran has slammed 27 centuries in 100 first-class matches, with an average of 49.40, Rahul has recently batted mainly in the middle-order but comes in with the fact that he’s scored Test centuries in England, South Africa, and Australia, the country where he made his Test debut in 2014.
Rahul played three Tests in the Indian home season, with his last game coming via the hosts’ series opener against New Zealand at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. After making scores of 0 and 12 in that game, where India lost by eight wickets, he didn’t feature in the remainder of the series.
On the other hand, Jurel could be taking up wicketkeeping duties from Ishan Kishan, who is leading India A. Jurel didn’t get a game to play in the five Tests India played at home, though he did get to feature as a substitute wicketkeeper in the first Test at Bengaluru after Rishabh Pant hurt his knee.
Previously, Prasidh Krishna was added to the India A squad as a replacement for Yash Dayal, who was named in India’s T20I squad for the four-match tour of South Africa, starting on November 8 in Durban.
The first four-day game saw India A, captained by Ruturaj Gaikwad, suffer a heavy seven-wicket defeat at the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay, Queensland, with left-handed batters B. Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal along with pacer Mukesh Kumar being the standout performers.
India A squad for 2nd first-class game: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Abhimanyu Easwaran (vc), Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Baba Indrajith, Ishan Kishan (wk), Abishek Porel (wk), Mukesh Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini, Manav Suthar, Tanush Kotian, Prasidh Krishna, KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel (wk)
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