Musheer Khan, a 19-year-old who has had an exceptional debut first-class season, is getting ready to leave for Australia for the shadow tour of India A, which will consist of three “four-day” Tests. The young cricketer has impressed in this season by scoring 200 runs in Ranji quarter-final and a century during the final match; he also made 181 run against India B.
Duleep Trophy performances and the Irani Cup match between the Rest of India and Ranji champions Mumbai, which takes place before the tour, will determine the India A team for the Australia tour.
Nevertheless, it is all but certain that test specialists along with pace bowlers will depart early on this trip while other players such as Musheer and Rajasthan’s left-arm spinner Manav Suthar are most likely to join the squad. He has had a fantastic season so far by outperforming Saurabh Kumar as one of the best left-arm orthodox spinners after both Ravindra Jadeja or Axar Patel.
Presently speaking, subject to fitness concerns, Musheer is an obvious pick for India A’s tour down under
Those who understand cricket suggest that Musheer’s talent and ability to score big runs at critical times (like Ranji Trophy finals) against tough attacks (for instance, an opposition pace attack comprising Akash Deep, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan) always give him an advantage during such games.
Also noteworthy is how he managed to stay in the pitch for 373 balls (62.1 overs out of 116) and partnered with Navdeep Saini who was batting lower down the order.
In the home series against England, Sarfaraz Khan’s fearless attitude excited all but KL Rahul’s exposure will be his advantage while finalizing the playing XI during India’s season-opening Test series against Bangladesh commencing September 19 at Chennai.
The speculation is that the entire focus of the team management and selection committee is on a tour of Australia in November-December, thus giving Rahul an edge since he has played 50 Tests.
The team management has to choose between Sarfaraz whose play is full of vigour and youthfulness but lacks much experience as opposed to someone who has captained Test matches and has been involved with the Indian cricket team for more than a decade now.
“For people on the outside, they don’t understand how a team works and what are the systems in place. In his last three Test matches, KL scored a century in South Africa, one of the best Test knocks in recent times and 86 at Hyderabad in the last Test he played before injury.”
“He was not dropped but got injured. So, he is fit and available, scored a fifty in Duleep, got match time and he will start,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
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