Veteran Cheteshwar Pujara would try to remain related within the nationwide staff’s scheme of issues with a purposeful knock when Saurashtra conflict with Remainder of India, a aspect that’s full of 5 specialist openers, within the Irani Cup conflict beginning right here Saturday. Whereas Madhya Pradesh are the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy champions, Saurashtra will likely be enjoying the Irani Trophy by advantage of being the 2019-20 champions because the one-off match wasn’t held for successive seasons on account of COVID-19.
Gone are these days when the Remainder of India versus Ranji champions’ encounter was a digital nationwide staff trial recreation the place a great efficiency was a positive shot ticket in the direction of an entry into the nationwide dressing room.
An Irani Cup in 2022 is extra about being within the scheme of issues so far as reserve bench is anxious and majority of the Remainder of India squad contains of gamers, who’ve all featured within the latest A sequence towards New Zealand.
The Saurashtra staff has a battle-hardened professional in Pujara, whose Check profession is on the crossroads and he would not prefer to put a foot fallacious earlier than the away sequence in Bangladesh.
He has had a dream run for Sussex in each purple ball and white ball (Checklist A) video games however whether or not the selectors will stick with him in Assessments going ahead is one other matter.
However on his residence floor the place he has scored truckloads of runs, Pujara can show to be greater than a handful for the younger velocity weapons like Umran Malik, Kuldeep Sen, Arzan Nagwaswalla or the upcoming spinners specifically R Sai Kishore and Saurabh Kumar.
Nevertheless the first drawback that Remainder of India face is having too many openers — all in-form of their squad of 15.
There’s India ‘A’ pair of Priyank Panchal and Abhimanyu Easwaran that did effectively towards New Zealand ‘A’ whereas Yashasvi Jaiswal was in regal type within the Duleep Trophy, scoring 265 within the remaining.
Then there’s Check opener Mayank Agarwal who’s making an attempt to make a comeback and younger Yash Dhull who has scored 770 runs in 5 top notch video games in his debut season.
Solely skipper Hanuma Vihari and in type Sarfaraz Khan are the 2 specialist batters aside from keeper Kona Bharat.
The Saurashtra bowling assault will likely be manned by Jaydev Unadkat, a professional in home cricket, who is bound to really feel quick modified on not getting a nationwide name up after 65 wickets in 2019-20 season.
There’s Chetan Sakariya who will convey the ball again into the best handed batters.
On a gradual batting floor, the spinners of either side will come into play from third day onwards.
Squads: Saurashtra: Jaydev Unadkat (Captain), Cheteshwar Pujara, Sheldon Jackson, Arpit Vasavada, Chirag Jani, Kamlesh Makwana, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Prerak Mankad, Chetan Sakariya, Snell Patel, Vishvarajsinh Jadeja, Kushang Patel, Harvik Desai, Samarth Vyas, Parth Bhut, Kishan Parmar.
Promoted
Remainder of India: Hanuma Vihari (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Priyank Panchal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Yash Dhull, Sarfaraaz Khan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Okay.S.Bharat, Upendra Yadav, Jayant Yadav, Saurabh Kumar, R Sai Kishore, Mukesh Kumar, Umran Malik, Kuldeep Sen, Arzan Nagwaswalla.
Match begins at 9:30am.
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