Hanuma Vihari and Navdeep Saini came up with the brightest performances in India A’s just concluded tour of South Africa. Both have travelled a fair bit with the India team but are still in search of regular playing spot. Their latest showing will hold them in good stead should an opportunity arise in the upcoming Test series in South Africa.
New coach Rahul Dravid is an advocate of shadow tours ahead of overseas Test series, but this one was too close to the real thing. So much so that Vihari, who is in India’s 18-man Test squad, and four reserves—Saini, fellow pacer Deepak Chahar, left-arm seamer Arzan Nagwaswalla and left-arm spinner and all-rounder Saurabh Kumar have stayed back in South Africa ahead of the series starting at Centurion on December 26.
Vihari’s omission for the home series win over New Zealand was curious as the selectors failed to reward him on the first available playing opportunity for his dogged showing in the Sydney Test. He batted with R Ashwin for more than 40 overs, despite a hamstring injury, ensuring a draw to keep India alive in the series.
While Shreyas Iyer capitalised on his chance against the Kiwis, the Hyderabad batter channelled his disappointment with solid showings against South Africa A, posting 227 runs in 3 four-day games at an average of 75.66. He scored 54 and 72* in the second game and 63 in the third and final game. Both Vihari and Iyer will be pushing to play in the Tests with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane struggling.
{{/usCountry}}While Shreyas Iyer capitalised on his chance against the Kiwis, the Hyderabad batter channelled his disappointment with solid showings against South Africa A, posting 227 runs in 3 four-day games at an average of 75.66. He scored 54 and 72* in the second game and 63 in the third and final game. Both Vihari and Iyer will be pushing to play in the Tests with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane struggling.
{{/usCountry}}SAINI DISMISSAL
Those in the team who watched Saini bowl in South Africa were mightily impressed. He bowled with great energy; his dismissal of left-hander Beuran Hendricks, sending his off-stump cartwheeling from around the wicket, stood out. Saini, a tall, strapping fast bowler with the ability to consistently hit mid 140 kph has always possessed the attributes to bowl well with the red ball. But he has previously been wayward. On the A tour, Saini delivered the most overs and was seen bowling with better plans, sticking to the off-stump channel. He was the most successful bowler of the series from both sides with 11 wickets in what were essentially batting conditions at Bloemfontein.
India A tours also work as markers for future selection, following exchange of ideas between selectors, Indian support staff and A coaches. Other than Saini, all other bowlers were rotated through the series. Deepak Chahar played in the last match, taking a four-wicket haul in an innings. He heads the queue as a swing bowling option for the senior team.
Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar, who remains among the selectors’ long-format options, was sidelined with back spasms after the first match. Equally unlucky was Gujarat opener Priyank Panchal, who after an impressive 96 in the first match, split his finger in the next and batted through pain. Panchal and Abhimanyu Easwaran, who have been travelling as reserves with India for a few tours, gave a reasonable account of themselves but would need to do more to break through in the crowded Indian top order. Jammu and Kashmir speedster Umran Malik played just one game and is still being seen as work in progress for longer formats.
Prithvi Shaw played all the matches, batted at his usual brisk pace but failed to reach a single fifty. Mumbai’s Sarfaraz Khan impressed with one plucky innings, Kishan blazed away in another, but no one was outstanding in a tour that ended with three draws.
COVID FREE TOUR
The A team matches were being played in the shadow of a spurt in Covid cases in South Africa and rise of the Omicron variant, but the tour was incident free except a couple of false positives among the Indian support staff whose follow-up tests returned negative. “The bio-secure protocols followed by Cricket South Africa were stringent and both the teams were confined to the team hotels with no outside guests,” said India A manager Anil Patel.