In less than a week, the India A team will leave for West Indies but atleast half of the members of the squad are woefully short of proper match practice as they embark on a tour that will be an indicator of the senior team’s bench strength in the coming season.
Out of the 15-member squad, there are atleast seven players who haven’t played any significant competitive match for more than month-and-half while the Cheteshwar Pujara-led team will play their first four-day ‘Test’ match against West Indies ‘A’ from June 2-5.
Some of the key players who haven’t played any quality competitive matches (club matches excluded) are skipper Cheteshwar Pujara, vice-captain Wriddhiman Saha, Robin Bist, Abhinav Mukund, left-arm spinner Akshay Darekar, Shami Ahmed and Jalaj Saxena.
A short three-day conditioning camp will be held at the Feroz Shah Kotla from May 27-29 before the team leaves for the Caribbean Islands.
Skipper Pujara has last played an IPL match on April 12 for RCB while his deputy Saha
played the last of his four IPL matches on April 28. Significantly, he got a chance to bat only once. Rajasthan’s Bist last played a BCCI match way back on March 18 (Deodhar Trophy game) and hasn’t played a single match for Delhi Daredevils in this edition of IPL. Bist, however, has been playing Hot-Weather tournament matches for his team Collage but that can hardly be called competitive.
His colleague Shami Ahmed’s case is even more baffling. The 22-year-old Shami hasn’t played a single match since Bengal’s National T20 encounter back on March 25. He has warmed the dug-out for KKR throughout the season and funnily his club side Mohun Bagan are out of CAB league depriving him of even the slightest chance of bowling in a competitive match.
Bist however feels that playing club matches has atleast kept him match-fit as he hasn’t been touring with Daredevils.
Tamil Nadu opener Mukund last played on March 24 in a National T20 game and hasn’t also got a look in the playing XI. Considering, he would be playing an active role in the ‘A’ team, he would certainly be rusty. Rookie Darekar and surprise selection Saxena have last played for their sides on March 19 and 25 respectively.
