The first round of the Duleep Trophy has come to an end, and in the match played at Anantapur, India C secured an early win on Day 3, as it was one of the lowest-scoring games.
Today in the other game at the Chinnaswamy stadium, where India A took on India B, the match was won by India B in a commanding fashion by 76 runs. Both these two matches hold immense importance from the point of view of the selectors, as they will look to manage a team for the Bangladesh home series.
Indian selectors had earlier hinted that it would be at the end of the first round of the Duleep Trophy that they would be announcing a squad against the Bangladesh team, who will visit the Indian subcontinent from the 19th of September.
The India B player Musheer Khan played a historic innings as he went past the likes of great Sachin Tendulkar to break the record for most runs on a Duleep Trophy debut. Musheer took his team from a situation of 94/7 to 292/7 before lunch on Day 2, as he himself scored 181 individual runs.
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Musheer, in a hunch to score quick runs, got out to Kuldeep Yadav as he missed on a debut double ton by a whisker. However, he could not follow up that greatly as Musheer was out for a duck in the second inning.
However, who has been the best performer in the match for India A remained their pick of the bowlers, Akash Deep, who struck 9 times in the match, as he had 4 wickets in the first innings and responded back with a 5-fer in the second, as they were restricted to 184.
They posted a target of 275 in front of the India A batters, as the team’s batting unit collapsed again, with Shubman Gill once again having a disappointing dismissal. Pant and Sarfaraz had contributed to India B’s second innings with quickfire innings, as Pant scored a 61 off just 47 balls.
KL Rahul turned the only batter for India B who scored a fifty in either innings combined, as he was dismissed for 57 in the second innings, and India B were all-out for 198. Mukesh Kumar emerged as India B’s best bowler with his 3-fers in either inning.
Mukesh and Akash Deep both have ideal chances of making it to Team India, as the men in blue are in search of a fourth-pace bowling option. Both of these players have turned in for the auditions of the game.
