Hubli, hosting its first ever international match would be providing yet another chance to discarded Test openers — Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag — and left-arm seamer Zaheer Khan, out of the national side on fitness count as India ‘A’ take on the touring West Indies ‘A’ in the four-day third unofficial test here on Tuesday.
The Indian team, for the second day in succession, had the practice session under the watchful eyes of coach Lalchand Rajput. The Windies, except for Kieran Powell, preferred to stay indoors on Monday, had a charged up session on Tuesday. Abhishek Nayar, who batted purposefully at Shimoga last week, was suffering from viral infection. But team sources confirmed that he has recovered and was all set to celebrate his birthday at Taj’s Hotel Gateway later in the day. Similar is the case with Fidel Edwards for Windies. However, lady physio Beverley Nelson said he has recovered and will be in action.
However, Indians would be missing the services of seamer Mohammad Shami, who played both at Mysore and Shimoga, as he has returned to national team. Though the team management has not announced his replacement, it looks like Dhaval Kulkarni. If that’s the case he will get a chance to prove his worth on a wicket which is expected to assist the seamers both with the bounce and movement initially. However, all eyes will be on Zaheer, who will be keen to deliver the goods for the team.
‘Zak’, who also celebrated his birthday at the Taj hotel just on Tuesday, must have been pleased with the greenish wicket here.
On the other hand, Windies looked more confident with the success they found both in batting and bowling departments. Their Shimoga batting hero Kraigg Brathwaite looked in ‘very good’ nick and has promised to carry on the good work for the Carribeans. Skipper Kirk Edwards, Kieran Powell and Assad Fudadin will add to the tourists batting strength while Nikita Miller and Permaul Veerasammy are feared to exploit the wicket here