IND A v BAN warm-up match Day 1 Review: India A in command

Ahead of their first ever Test match between India and Bangladesh on Indian soil, the visitors take on India A at the Gymkhana Ground in Hyderabad, the city which will be hosting the Test as well. Mushfiqur Rahim won the toss and elected to bat first. Bangladesh fielded 13 members for the game leaving out Shakib Al Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, and Kamrul Rabbi.

India A decided to take the field with all the 16 men while only 11 can bat. Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes opened for the Bangladeshis and both got off the mark with a boundary in first overs bowled by Chama Milind and Hardik Pandya respectively. The local boy Milind didn’t take long to draw first blood as he had Kayes fending a sharp rising delivery and was caught by Pandya at fine-leg.

Milind kept bowling at a good pace and regularly banged the ball in short which clearly made the Bangladeshi batsmen uncomfortable. While Milind kept the visiting side in hold, Pandya let them free allowing to score boundaries. The allrounder suffered cramps while bowling only his 2nd over and finished the spell with 3 overs giving away 29 runs including 6 boundaries.

Skipper Abhinav Mukund brought Aniket Choudhary, another left-arm pacer for Pandya and that worked for him as the lanky bowler struck in the second over of his spell. Tamim Iqbal, who didn’t score a run for 10 balls after hitting 3 fours in his first 10 balls was cleaned up by Aniket for 13. Despite some good bowling from both the left-arm pacers, Soumya Sarkar kept the pace of his innings by striking boundaries at regular intervals.

Vijay Shankar was at receiving end as Sarkar struck 5 fours in the 2 overs from the medium pacer. In his innings, Sarkar hit a total of 9 fours and a six down the ground over Jayant Yadav to bring up his fifty with a single in just 55 balls. However, the left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem trapped Sarkar in front and brought an end to 52-run innings.

On the other end, Mominul Haque scored just 5 runs despite getting a life. He was caught behind on a rising delivery from Aniket off a no-ball. However, the pacer got Mominul’s number soon as the 25-year-old edge a similar delivery from Aniket, this time to slips which wasn’t a no-ball.

Mahmudullah, batting on 11 and their captain Mushfiqur Rahim ensured they went to Lunch without any further damage. Bangladesh played 26 overs in the opening session and lost 4 wickets for 92 runs.

After Lunch, Bangladesh lost their senior batsman Mahmudullah for 23 who edged to short leg fielder Priyank Panchal off Kuldeep Yadav’s bowling. Sabbir Rahman’s arrival at the crease brought some flair and hope for the Bangladeshis as both the batsmen kept the scoreboard ticking and made sure they got enough practice staying at the crease for a considerable period.

They both kept finding the fence regularly, including a six from each against Jayant Yadav. Sabbir Rahman struck one over long-on which hit the newly built media arena at the venue. Jayant’s spell got expensive as he was hit for 41 runs in his 9 overs.

The pair put on 71 runs in 21.1 overs for the 6th wicket before Vijay Shankar trapped Sabbir in front. Liton Das and Rahim remained unbeaten at the end of the session with 8 and 50 respectively.

Rishabh Pant took over the keeping duties from Ishan Kishan after 48 overs in order to get a chance of warming up his keeping skills. Kishan was pretty good with his wicket-keeping as he missed only two balls in the 48 overs he kept and both flew over the short man’s head.

The only probable chance which went down in the first two sessions of play was on Milind’s bowling where Rahim, who was in the 40s edged it to slips but Ishank Jaggi, the only slip fielder couldn’t even reach the ball.

The ball was changed after two overs of play in the post Tea session. Aniket Choudhary, who didn’t even bowl one over in the 2nd session struck twice in two balls with the changed ball. First the Bangladeshi skipper Mushfiqur Rahim edged the ball moving away from him outside off stump to the keeper Rishabh Pant, who took a catch on his right.

The next batsman Mehedi Hasan tried to leave the first ball he faced but it came in sharply and struck him in front and the Umpire had no regrets in raising his finger on a plumb decision which turned out be the 4th wicket for Aniket.

Litton Das struck a couple of boundaries and punched Nadeem over cow corner for a six in his unbeaten 23 before Bangladesh surprised everyone by declaring their innings at 224/8 after 67 overs of play.

India A started off with the captain Abhinav Mukund and Priyank Panchal striking few boundaries. Mukund, who scored all his runs on the leg side was caught in the slips off a Subashis Roy’s delivery moving away from stumps. He scored 16 runs and added 41 runs for opening wicket before Shreyas Iyer continued pacing the innings.

Panchal batted with confidence during his stay and ensured he remained unbeaten at end of the day. He picked runs playing with soft hands and also struck 6 fours in his 40 and added 50 runs with Iyer in just 11 overs. The Mumbai lad scored 29 in just 35 balls with 4 fours and a six in bowling of Mehedi, who was unsettled by the pair scoring 27 runs in his 4 overs.

Brief Scores:

India A: 91/1 in 21 overs (PK Panchal 40*, S Iyer 29*; Subashis Roy 1/11)

Bangladesh: 224/8 dec in 67 overs (Mushfiqur Rahim 58, Soumya Sarkar 52; Aniket Choudhary 4/26)