EXPLAINED! Why India A vs England Lions, 1st Unofficial Test Will be Important For Visitors?

India-A vs England Lions: While there will be action in India due to the ongoing season of the IPL, there will also be the start of Team India’s preparatory leg in the United Kingdom. The Indian ‘A’ side will take on the English Lions in the 1st Unofficial Test starting Friday. It will be a four-day game and will give ample opportunity to the Indian players to get accustomed to the tricky conditions in the United Kingdom. 

Traditionally, pacers get a lot of assistance in the English conditions and life is not too easy for the batters – especially ones who are used to playing in subcontinental conditions. The 1st Unofficial Test takes place in Canterbury, which is located in the southeast side of England. 

Most of the Indian players in the ‘A’- squad are coming off an IPL season and hence the mindset would be different. The warm-up game will allow the players to get used to the red-ball and the shift in mindset would also be important ahead of the five-match Test series against England. At least, five to six players in the ‘A’ side would be vying for spots in the Indian playing XI when the Headingley Test comes around. In fact, a few players who have not been in decent form would look to get some form back ahead of the big series. 

Sai Sudharsan and India’s newly-crowned Test skipper Shubman Gill will join in for the second game which starts from June 9. Currently, they are featuring in the IPL and would be certainties in the national side for the first Test. For Abhimanyu Easwaran, who has been doing phenomenally well in the domestic circuit, would look to do well and get a spot in the playing XI for the first Test. Same will be the case with Karun Nair. 

Multiple reports claim Nair would be slotted in at Virat Kohli’s No. 4 slot. 

Players like Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed, and Tushar Deshpande are also there. All these players would like to impress the selectors with their performance in the upcoming unofficial Test.