West Indies A make promising start against India A

West Indies A made a promising start against India A in the second unofficial Test with openers Kraigg Brathwaite and Montcin Hodge taking their team to 71 for no loss at lunch on day one here Wednesday.

Brathwaite was batting on 29 off 95 balls and Hodge on 38 off 91 in the morning session which comprised 31 overs. West Indies, who trail 0-1 in the three-match series, opted to bat at the Queen's Park Oval.

With Shreyas Iyer and Navdeep Saini joining the national team in the United States for the T20 series, India A made some interesting choices for their playing eleven.

The team, captained by Test specialist Hanuma Vihari, left out spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who was the architect of its win in the series opener with a 10-wicket haul, batsman Shubman Gill and wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha who had made a successful comeback in the last game after a long injury lay-off.

As expected, Test opener Mayank Agarwal was drafted into the team though initially he was only picked for the third game, which was to be used as a practice match ahead of the two-match Test series in the Caribbean.

Batsman Anmolpreet Singh was also picked and so was medium pacer Sandeep Warrier. India pacer Umesh Yadav, who had also flown in here alongside Agarwal, was not included.

India A won the first unofficial Test in North Sound, Antigua by six wickets.

Brief scores: West Indies 71/0 in 31 overs (Kraigg Brathwaite 29 batting, Montcin Hodge 38 batting).