Experienced Cheteshwar Pujara will attempt to keep related within the nationwide group’s plan with a purposeful knock when Saurashtra tackle Rest of India, which is full of 5 specialist openers within the Irani Cup tie.
While Madhya Pradesh is the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy champions, Saurashtra being the 2019-20 champions will probably be taking part in the Irani Trophy because the one-off match was not held for consecutive seasons because of COVID-19. Gone are the times when the Rest of India vs Ranji Champions match was a digital nationwide group trial sport the place an excellent efficiency was a certain shot ticket to entry into the nationwide dressing room.
An Irani Cup in 2022 is extra about being within the scheme of issues so far as the reserve bench is anxious and the Rest of India squad comprising a lot of the gamers, having featured within the latest A sequence towards New Zealand.
The Saurashtra group has a battle-hardened supporter within the type of Pujara, whose Test profession is at crossroads and wouldn’t wish to put a foot flawed earlier than the sequence in Bangladesh.
He has been a dream comer for Sussex in each red-ball and white-ball (List A) video games, however whether or not the selectors will keep on with him in Tests is one other matter. But at his residence turf the place he has racked up truckloads of runs, Pujara can show to be a handful for younger pace weapons like Umran Malik, Kuldeep Sen, Arjan Nagwaswala or up-and-coming spinners like R Sai Kishore and Saurabh Kumar.
However, the largest drawback dealing with the remainder of India is that the variety of all openers of their squad of 15 is just too excessive.
India ‘A’ pair of Priyank Panchal and Abhimanyu Easwaran did nicely towards New Zealand ‘A’ whereas Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 265 runs within the ultimate within the Duleep Trophy.
Then there may be Test opener Mayank Agarwal who’s trying to make a comeback and younger Yash Dhul who has scored 770 runs in 5 first-class matches in his debut season. Apart from keeper Kona India, solely skipper Hanuma Vihari and in-form Sarfaraz Khan are the 2 specialist batsmen.
Saurashtra’s bowling assault will probably be spearheaded by home cricket supporter Jaydev Unadkat, who is certain to really feel little change if the nationwide name isn’t met after 65 wickets within the 2019-20 season. There is Chetan Sakariya who will convey the ball again to the right-handed batsmen.
Spinners from each side will come into play from the third day on a gradual batting floor.
Squad:
Saurashtra: Jaydev Unadkat (Captain), Cheteshwar Pujara, Sheldon Jackson, Arpit Vasavada, Chirag Jani, Kamlesh Makwana, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Prerak Mankad, Chetan Sakaria, Snell Patel, Vishwarajsinh Jadeja, Kushang Patel, Harvik Desai, Samarth Bhut, Kishan Parmar.
Rest of India: Hanuma Vihari (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Priyank Panchal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Yash Dhull, Sarfaraaz Khan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, KSBharat, Upendra Yadav, Jayant Yadav, Saurabh Kumar, R Sai Kishore, Mukesh Kumar, Umran Malik, Kuldeep Sen, Arzan Nagwaswalla .
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
