'India pulling off what even Australia could not at their peak' - Inzamam-ul-Haq lauds India for assembling two national teams simultaneously

Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq has lauded team India’s phenomenal bench strength and has gone as far as to say that they have potentially beaten Australia in this regard. The Men in Yellow had a strong pool of players back in the late 90s and early 2000s, which helped them to rule the cricketing world for close to 15 years.

Team India is all set to travel to England to play the World Test Championship final and a five-match Test series to be followed thereafter. India have already named a strong squad of 20 players and are scheduled to depart on June 2. While the said 20 players will be battling out in whites, the fringe players too have an opportunity to impress the selectors when India departs to Sri Lanka in the month of July.

Inzamam is mighty impressed with Indian team management and lavished praise on the coaches and support staff.

India’s B team too can pose an equal threat to the opposition team: Inzamam

“This idea of assembling a second Indian team is very interesting. What India are trying to do today, Australia did this years ago, but they were not able to be successful in it. But the scenario today is such that India appear to be pulling it off. For the first time I think it is happening that a national cricket team will be playing two different series. One side in one country and the other side in some other country, and both are national teams,” Inzamam said in a video uploaded on his YouTube channel, ‘Inzamam ul Haq – The Match Winner’

“When Australia were at their peak. From 1995 to say 2005-2010, they had tried to distinguish two international teams named Australia A and Australia B, but they didn’t get permission. India are doing what even Australia couldn’t do in their peak. And the move makes sense given the isolation protocols and everything, and it couldn’t have been possible to send the same team to both countries in such a gap,” the former Pakistan captain added.

The Sri Lanka tour will give the youngsters the likes of Prithvi Shaw, Deepak Chahar and Sanju Samson a chance to press their case ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup.