India A Series ....

[PKBasu]

Parthiv Patel will captain India A in the "Emerging Players' Tournament" in Australia -- a tournament that also includes New Zealand and South Africa. The very strong team (comprising many of the domestic stars of the IPL) is:

SQUAD FOR EMERGING PLAYERS’ TOURNAMENT

Parthiv Patel (captain), Subramaniam Badrinath (vice-captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Manoj Tiwary, Abhishek Nayar, Virat Kohli, Amit Mishra, Pankaj Singh, Manpreet Gony, Siddharth Trivedi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Iqbal Abdulla, Ravinder Jadeja, Pinal Shah

And there is another India A side (actually India B!) being sent to play three one-dayers against Israel (including all the world's best Jewish players -- including one from Saurashtra, and one Maharashtra Jew who is now a citizen of Israel -- plus Jonty Rhodes) to celebrate 60 years of Israel's existence. That team is:

SQUAD FOR ISRAEL

Jaydev Shah (captain), Swapnil Asnodkar, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravi Teja, Murali Vijay, Wriddhiman Saha, Rajat Bhatia, Yogesh Takawale, Rakesh Dhruv, Mohnish Parmar, Vishal Bhatia, Basant Mohanty, Pradeep Sangwan, Ashok Dinda, Vinay Kumar

It's quite interesting that there are two wicket-keepers in each of the two teams, but the India squad now has only one (skipper Dhoni, with Uthappa presumably as back-up).

[prasen9]

It is weird to see Pujara in India-B instead of the flavor-of-the-year Virat Kohli.  I am not saying that Virat Kohli is not immensely talented, but that Pujara is talented too and imho has seasoned and performed more consistently over some more time than Kohli.  In turn, when Kohli will be a bit more mature, we will turn to the next U-19 star. Maybe Pujara has been branded a classical player fit for mostly tests.

[gbelday]

Why isn't Venu in any of the teams?  I see Ravi Teja..

[prasen9]

Good point.  Another case of a batsman tried a tad too early and may be given up on.  I hope he gets serious India-A opportunities in the near future.

[jaydeep]

Good article by Makarand Waingankar about giving exposure to grooming talented performers and he thinks BCCI is doing right thing with sending teams to Australia for the four-nation tournament and for friendly games in Israel ... Now state associations r also taking initiative in sending their players to Australia and English tours.

BCCI is on the right track

[prasen9]

Dinda took five wickets to lead India to a win against NZ-A. Sudip Tyagi has bowled very well in the domestics and it seems Dinda is coming along well too. Dinda has some ways to go before he makes it big time.

[Sandeep]

India 'A' succumbed to the pressure on the last and final day to hand over a well deserved win to New zealand 'A' . For me Ganguly was the major disappointment in this match. What should have been a confidence booster has further pushed him into uncertainty over his form.

[prasen9]

Rohit Sharma scores a 94. Pujara, and Saha played well and Manoj batted decently too. Sorry to see Rahane fail. Shami Ahmed is playing. Awana is not. I think Awana should have been given a shot, but, Ahmed bowled very well in the first innings. Similarly, Rahul Sharma is playing ahead of the talented Darekar. Sharma is more of a limited overs bowler, but, he bowled well in inning 1. A narrow lead for India A. Let us see.

[PKBasu]

This match is being played in Bridgetown, Barbados. There was a time when India routinely lost to Barbados in the side game before the Bridgetown test -- and Barbados beat the likes of England quite regularly too, and Australia on occasion as well. It was a hazardous place for batsmen in the era of Marshall, Garner, Wayne Daniel and Sylvester Clarke (all Barbadians). Some of the pacers were bouncing it hard there yesterday -- so it was nice to see the India A middle-order hold up well. Rahane was run out, so I wouldn't quite label it a failure unless he was responsible for getting himself run out.

[indiansportsfan]

Well Rahane did fail in the 2nd innings. India struggling chasing a small total.

[prasen9]

Sportsindiafan, what is the score on Day 3? I heard WI were 100 odd for 2. Anywhere I can see the scorecard?

[indiansportsfan]

Chasing 186, India are 22 for 3.
http://www.windiescricket.com/new-terms-details/6751

[prasen9]

Thanks. One of the three wickets to fall is that of Rahul Sharma's. So, maybe there is hope. Dinda and Rahul Sharma were somewhat disappointing this game. Maybe get Awana and Darekar in their place. With respect to batsmen, the only other bat is Robin Bist. Rahane deserves a longer run.

[indiansportsfan]

Pujara doing the star turn, making unbeaten 96 in a nail-biting win. http://www.espncricinfo.com/westindies/ ... 67413.html
He seems ready to get into the test team.

[prasen9]

This is huge. Really huge. India were 115 for 8 chasing 186. Pujara is perhaps a mixture of Dravid-Laxman. He has Dravid's technique and Laxman's temperament. He was ice-cool against Australia in a chase the likes of which India used to regularly mess up in the '80s and '90s. Today, he batted with the tail in a foreign land against a 6ft 7in pacer breathing down his neck, on a dodgy wicket and managed to coax the tail to eke out a victory. I think this 90 should be worth more than the Tendulkarish 90 that Rohit scored in the first innings even though that was scored when the team was in a spot of bother. That 90 was not a closing job. I like closers with ice in their veins. As Shake-a-sphere would have said: [Test] ambition should be made of sterner stuff. The English guy knew a bit about cricket.