India A rode on an excellent opening partnership between half centurions Mayank Agarwal (56) and Pratham Singh (59 not out) to reach 115 /1 and more importantly extended their overall lead to 222 runs at stumps on the second day of the Duleep Trophy Round 2 match against India D
India C rode on a magnificent century from Ishan Kishan (111 off 126 deliveries) to end Day 1 at 357 for 5 at stumps, in the second round of the Duleep Trophy against India B, at the Rural Development Trust Stadium B in Anantapur.
The star power of the season-opening red-ball event will see a noticeable reduction with the release of India squad members for a preparatory camp ahead of the first Test against Bangladesh in Chennai, starting September 19.
Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, Kuldeep Yadav and Akash Deep are leaving the India A team and will be replaced by Pratham Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Shaik Rasheed, Shams Mulani and Aaqib Khan.
All-rounder Musheer Khan, whose first-innings knock of 181 set the base for India B's 76-run win over India A in the Duleep Trophy first round match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, said he knew about getting an opportunity to perform in the tournament after doing well in Ranji Trophy.
The Duleep trophy was a five-team zonal tournament but now features India Blue, India Green and India Red in a round-robin format.
It has been learned that for the next two days, the Indian team's focus will be on what is being called as 'twilight zone', something that cricketers who have played with the pink ball, have acknowledged to be very challenging.
The right-handed batsman and right-arm off-break bowler played as many as 113 first-class matches and accumulated 6044 runs apart from picking up 305 wickets.
Notably, the left-handed batsman will not be available for most part of India’s upcoming domestic season which begins with Duleep Trophy on 17 August.
Notably, India Blue had won the Duleep Trophy last year after defeating India Red by a margin of an innings and 187 runs.
