THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It won’t come as music to the ears of South Africa ‘A’ players that a certain Shikhar Dhawan will be playing for India ‘A’ when the teams meet at the Greenfield Stadium on Wednesday. If the first three one-dayers won by the home team were all about India hopefuls trying to catch the attention of national selectors, the last two games would see an India mainstay trying to rediscover his scoring touch.
It is a drop-down for a veteran like Dhawan to be playing for India ‘A’ alongside cricketers who are knocking on the doors of the Indian team. But he struggled during the tour of West Indies where he was making a comeback after getting injured during the World Cup in England and this could be a perfect platform for the southpaw to rediscover his swagger. He was slotted in as a replacement for the injured Vijay Shankar in the squad.
A demoralised South Africa ‘A’ side would be going up against a fresh set of faces from the squad which beat them in the first three matches. Shreyas Iyer will take over captaincy duties from Manish Pandey. Wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan, who was one of the star performers in the first three games, makes way for Kerala boy Sanju Samson who has a chance to impress the selectors.
Samson is an example of how players who were not in the big picture not too long ago getting a window of opportunity to catch the attention of the decision-makers. The likes of Ishan Porel, Tushar Deshpande and Prashant Chopra are the other names who would hope to get a look-in.
As for South Africa ‘A’, the remaining two matches will be about salvaging some pride. “Unfortunately, it is not good enough that our team is not winning. So it’s tough to swallow but we just need to do a little more,” Heinrich Klaasen, who has been one of their more consistent performers, said. “Personal performances don’t mean anything as long as your team is not winning,” said Klaasen.
Shreyas Iyer (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Prashant Chopra, Anmolpreet Singh, Ricky Bhui, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Nitish Rana, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Rahul Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Ishan Porel.