Mission Bangla begins

Hardik Pandya and a fit-again Jayant Yadav will be aiming to impress the Indian team management during India A’s two-day warm-up game against Bangladesh, starting here on Sunday.

While Hardik, after recovering from shoulder bruise sustained before of the Mohali Test against England, has played the recently-concluded entire limited overs series, Jayant has played for Haryana in the just-concluded North Zone leg of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

The duo along with reserve opener Abhinav Mukund are the three players from the Test squad whose performance will be under focus at the Gymkhana ground as they take on Mushfiqur Rahim’s men in the warm-up game, which will not have official first-class status. 

Mukund’s chances of making it to the playing XI will only be possible if one between KL Rahul or Murali Vijay gets injured but this will be a high stake game for both Hardik and Jayant as Kohli and Kumble are likely to field one of them in the all-rounder’s slot.

Having played white ball cricket for sometime, both will be eager to get some good game time especially long spells with the ball — which is supposed to be their primary skill. For Mukund, a good knock after a satisfying Ranji season will keep the openers on toes and he can also stake claim for third opener’s slot when Australia come calling. 

Ranji Trophy’s top run-getter Priyank Panchal will have his first brush against an international attack as he will be facing the likes of Taskin Ahmed, Shakib Al Hasan. The much talked about duo of youngsters — Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant — will also be seen in action. 

Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem will get a chance to test his skills against the likes of Rahim, Tamim Iqbal and Mominul Haque. 

Another interesting aspect will be what kind of performance the two left-arm seamers Aniket Chaudhary and Chama Milind put up. Post Zaheer Khan’s retirement, India is searching for a left-arm pacer across all formats. While veteran Ashish Nehra is still doing it in shortest format, it is the five-day games where they would want some variations. 

India A: Abhinav Mukund (capt), Priyank Panchal, Shreyas Iyer, Ishank Jaggi, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan (wk), Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Aniket Choudhary, Chama Milind, Nitin Saini (wk).

Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim (capt and wk), Imrul Kayes, Tamim Iqbal, Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah Riyadh, Sabbir Rahaman, Shakib al Hasan, Liton Kumar Das, Taskin Ahmed, Subashis Roy, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Soumya Sarkar, Taijul Islam, Shafiul Islam, Mehedi Hasan Miraz.