By BV Swagath
The fringe players of West Indies and India will play the 1st Unofficial Test from today at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados. The unofficial Test will be a four-day game and the two teams will play three such matches.
The India A side is being led by Cheteshwar Pujara while the West Indies A side is led by Veerasammy Permaul. This West Indies tour is going to be important for the Indian players aspiring to get into the Test team. There is one place vacant for sure in the Indian Test team following the retirement of Rahul Dravid. Pujara himself along with the Mumbai duo of Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma will be looking to grab this opportunity. There is no doubt that these three players at some point or the other will be an integral part of the Indian team.
Amongst the bowlers, Parvinder Awana is going to be watched closely by the Selectors. Awana has impressed everyone with his fast bowling in IPL 5 and soon could make it to the Indian team. The Punjab lad was initially not part of the India A side but an injury to RP Singh got him into the squad. Also, Wicket Keeper Wriddhiman Saha will be looking to perform well with the bat to keep pressure on none other than the Indian Captain MS Dhoni, who surely hasn’t done that great in Test Matches.
India A Squad for West Indies Tour: Cheteshwar Pujara (Captain), Wriddhiman Saha (Vice-Captain & Wicket Keeper), Abhinav Mukund, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary, Rahul Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Jalaj Saxena, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Robin Bist, Parvinder Awana, Akshay Darekar, Shami Ahmed
West Indies A Squad for 1st Unofficial Test Vs India A: Veerasammy Permaul (Captain), Jason Holder, Devendra Bishoo, Nkrumah Bonner, Kraigg Brathwaite, Jonathan Carter, Kyle Corbin, Delorn Johnson, Leon Johnson, Kevin McClean, Donovan Pagon, Lendl Simmons, Devon Thomas
