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Mumbai: Special invitees Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan would be the closely watched by the national selectors when Mumbai A take on the visiting England team in the tourists' second three-day warm-up game from Saturday.
Pujara, a prolific run-getter in domestic cricket and scorer of a ton in the opening Test against New Zealand in August, looks a certainty for India's first Test squad to be announced on the last day of this game.
Dhawan is a strong contender to be the reserve opener at Ahmedabad following his big scores in the earlier part of the 2012-13 domestic season.
The Delhi batsman would have played in place of Abhinav Mukund for India A in the opening warm-up game but opted out of the originally announced squad as his wedding date clashed with the match.
Apart from this duo, there are players like captain Suryakumar Yadav, Kshemal Waingankar and Balwinder Singh Sandhu Jr., who will be watched with interest by the selectors.
Medium pacer Waingankar, in fact, had taken a six-wicket haul when England last visited the country and played a warm-up game at Brabourne while Sandhu made an impressive Ranji Trophy debut as a new ball bowler last season.
There are others like batsmen Hiken Shah and Bhavin Thakkar, apart from leg spinner Sagar Gorivale and medium pacer Javed Khan who would be eager to impress against a top visiting side.
The visitors, on the other hand, had a satisfactory outing in their opening drawn game against India A that ended yesterday.
Most pleasing from their point of view was the long stays at the crease of captain and opener Alastair Cook and middle order batsman Samit Patel, both of who scored centuries.
There were attractive half centuries from Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior, the first choice stumper, to further give a boost to their confidence ahead of the tough battles in the four-Test rubber starting on November 15.
Speedsters James Anderson and Tim Bresnan, expected to make the eleven at Ahmedabad, had long spells under the sun and on a wicket that was good for batting.
Anderson claimed four wickets by concentrating on moving the ball and Bresnan used his aggression, pace and the short ball to snap up 4 wickets - par for the course.
Teams from
Mumbai A: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Hiken Shah, Bhavin Thakkar, Sufiyan Shaikh (wk), Nikhil Patil (Jr.), Abhishek Raut, Neelkanth Parab, Bravish Shetty, Kshemal Waingankar, Balwinder Singh Sandhu (Jr.), Sagar Gorivale, Javed Khan, Shardul Thakur.
England: Alastair Cook (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Nick Compton, Steven Finn, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior (wk), Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott, Sturt Broad, Joe Root, Jimmy Bairstow, Graham Onions, Eoin Morgan, Monty Panesar.
Match facts
November 3-5, 2012
Start time 09:30 local (04:00 GMT)
