Uphill task for Bangladesh A against India A (Preview)

Opening batsman and skipper Shikhar Dhawan, apart from Ravindra Jadeja and Varun Aaron will be under close scrutiny when India A take on the touring Bangladesh A side in an unofficial three-day game commencing here on Sunday.

Bangladesh A, led by Mominul Hoque, lost a one-day series to their Indian counterparts besides going down to Karnataka in a three-day warm-up game earlier this week in Mysuru, and the visitors would be hoping for a better performance over the next three days.

Dhawan, who is returning from an injury that he suffered during the recent tour of Sri Lanka, is presented with an excellent opportunity to get into groove ahead of the series against visiting South Africans next month.

As for Jadeja, the left-arm spinner and all-rounder, he will be striving hard to regain his spot in the national team after being ignored for both T20 and the three ODI games against South Africa as also paceman Aaron who had a poor outing in Sri Lanka that caused him to lose his India berth.

The spotlight will also be on a few young guns like batsmen Karun Nair and all-rounder Shreyas Gopal who both enjoyed a fine season for Ranji Trophy champions Karnataka, apart from Mumbai batsman Shreyas Iyer.

Bangladesh would be counting on their all-rounder Nasir Hossain who excelled in the three-match one-day series, scoring a century and a half-century apart from taking eight wickets.

Pitted against a fairly strong India A, the visitors will have to up their game considerably if they hope to stay with the hosts, a task easier said than done.

The teams (from):

India A: Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Varun Aaron, Baba Aparajith, Shreyas Gopal, Shreyas Iyer, Sheldon Jackson, Ravindra Jadeja, Abhimanyu Mithun, Abhinav Mukund, Karun Nair, Naman Ojha (wk), Ishwar Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Jayant Yadav.

Bangladesh A: Mominul Hoque (captain), Nasir Hossain (vice-captain), Anamul Hoque Bijoy, Rony Talukdar, Liton Kumar Das, Shabbir Rahaman, Soumya Sarker, Saqlain Sajib, Arafat Sunny, Rubel Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Al-Amin Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury, Jubair Hossain.