The England Lions will begin their tour of India, in which they will play five one-day matches and two Tests, with the first Unofficial ODI against India 'A' at the Greenfield International Stadium on Wednesday. Both sides consist of some very talented youngsters with some of them already having international experience under their belt. The India 'A' side will be led by Indian international batsman Ajinkya Rahane. Both teams won two matches each and tied one in the last five match series they played against each other. So, an equally intense battle can be expected this time around.
Weather and Pitch conditions: Bright, clear and sunny sky in forecast. The Greenfield pitch helps the pace bowlers a lot initially and hence they will enjoy bowling on this track. The morning session will aid them too and the team batting first will have a tough time dealing with them.
Player Recommendations:
Wicket-keeper: Ishan Kishan (9 Cr)
The India 'A' Keeper batsman has an average of 40.00 in List A matches. His 1560 runs in 42 matches comprise of 3 centuries and 9 fifties and his strike-rate of 92.25 is evidence of his hard hitting prowess too.
Batsman: Shreyas Iyer (9.5 Cr)
Iyer has 2524 runs to his name in 67 List A matches at an average of 42.06. Those runs include five centuries and 14 scores of fifty or more too. Moreover, he was seen in sublime touch with the bat in the series against New Zealand 'A' that concluded recently.
The England Lions will begin their tour of India, in which they will play five one-day matches and two Tests, with the first Unofficial ODI against India 'A' at the Greenfield International Stadium on Wednesday. Both sides consist of some very talented youngsters with some of them already having international experience under their belt. The India 'A' side will be led by Indian international batsman Ajinkya Rahane. Both teams won two matches each and tied one in the last five match series they played against each other. So, an equally intense battle can be expected this time around.
Weather and Pitch conditions: Bright, clear and sunny sky in forecast. The Greenfield pitch helps the pace bowlers a lot initially and hence they will enjoy bowling on this track. The morning session will aid them too and the team batting first will have a tough time dealing with them.
Player Recommendations:
Wicket-keeper: Ishan Kishan (9 Cr)
The India 'A' Keeper batsman has an average of 40.00 in List A matches. His 1560 runs in 42 matches comprise of 3 centuries and 9 fifties and his strike-rate of 92.25 is evidence of his hard hitting prowess too.
Batsman: Shreyas Iyer (9.5 Cr)
Iyer has 2524 runs to his name in 67 List A matches at an average of 42.06. Those runs include five centuries and 14 scores of fifty or more too. Moreover, he was seen in sublime touch with the bat in the series against New Zealand 'A' that concluded recently. He would be looking forward to continuing that form once again.
All-rounder: Lewis Gregory (9 Cr)
Gregory is a lower order batsman and a fabulous pace bowler who takes wickets for fun. Although he is a bit on the expensive side, he has 88 List-A wickets to his name in 60 matches at an average of 26.30. With the bat, he has 870 runs to his name at 23.51 and strikes at a good rate of 93.51. He has five fifties and one century to his name as well.
Bowler: Jamie Porter (8.5 Cr)
The 25-year old Porter is becoming a potent weapon with the ball. He has 28 wickets to his name in 23 List A matches at an average of 30.35 and has a decent economy rate of 5.16 too. He can cause some trouble for the Indian batsmen.
Captain: Shreyas Iyer
Vice-Captain: Lewis Gregory
Predicted XIs:
India 'A': Ajinkya Rahane (C), Anmolpreet Singh, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Ankit Bawne, Ishan Kishan (WK), Krunal Pandya, Siddarth Kaul, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar
England Lions: Tom Moores, Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett, Sam Billings (C & WK), Sam Hain, Alex Davies, Lewis Gregory, Dominic Bess, Jamie Overton, James Porter, Saqib Mahmood
