Former Chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar on Monday praised the Board President's XI for their "outstanding performance" against the visiting Australians in the lone warm-up game for the tourists at Hyderabad.
Talking on the sidelines after inaugurating a photo exhibition of Beijing Olympics action clicked by senior photographer Mohan Bane today, the former India skipper said the youngsters had come good in the way the previous selection panel headed by him expected them to do when picking the team.
"It was an outstanding performance. I am happy with the way Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Piyush Chawla performed in the match. They put in practice what we envisaged," he told reporters at the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh.
The squad led by Yuvraj, who slammed a stroke-filled ton in the seconsquad before the four-day tie ended in a draw.
India and Australia are to be engaged in a four-Test series starting at Bangalore on October 9.
Vengsarkar said he was impressed with Kohli's batting from the time he was in the under-15 group playing in the Cricket Board-conducted junior tournaments which he used to watch as head of the BCCI's Talent Research Development Officers panel prior to his stint in the senior selection committee.
{{/usCountry}}Vengsarkar said he was impressed with Kohli's batting from the time he was in the under-15 group playing in the Cricket Board-conducted junior tournaments which he used to watch as head of the BCCI's Talent Research Development Officers panel prior to his stint in the senior selection committee.
{{/usCountry}}"We were criticised for selecting Virat Kohli for the one-day series in Sri Lanka ahead of S Badrinath. Badri also went as a replacement for Sachin Tendulkar. I had seen Kohli as an under-15, under-17 and under-19 cricketer," he said.
Pointing out that his committee had invested in youth for the warm-up tie, Vengsarkar added, "these players have good potential."
The exhibition of 46 Beijing Olympics photographs shot by Bane was also praised by Vengsarkar as top class work and he compared him favourably with famous English cricket photographer Patrick Egar.