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An interesting little 2 Test series will be taking place in Chennai, featuring India A & an Usman Khawaja-led Australia A. I do like these fixtures, as it gives players knocking on the door of national selection a chance to impress the selectors... or in this case, it seems as though players who are maybe a couple of years off a chance to have run with the big boys, in the hope that they will blossom into international stars in the coming years.

The Oz squad is as follows; Usman Khawaja (c), Matthew Wade (vc), Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Joe Burns, Patrick Cummins, Andrew Fekete, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O'Keefe, Gurinder Sandhu, Marcus Stoinis.

From this squad, I would run with the following XI;

Nic Maddinson
Usman Khawaja
Joe Burns
Cameron Bancroft
Glenn Maxwell
Travis Head
Matthew Wade
Stephen O'Keefe
Ashton Agar
Pat Cummins
Gurinder Sandhu

Not sure where Chris Lynn, James Pattinson, or Jason Behrendorff are. A tri-angular ODI featuring the Saffers will follow after the second match,

India squad; KL Rahul, Jiwanjot Singh, Manoj Tiwary (c), Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Karun Nair, Naman Ojha (wk), Pragyan Ojha, Umesh Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Anureet Singh, Rajat Paliwal, Amit Mishra, Sandeep Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Baba Aparajith

Pat Cummins won't be on this now.

Sean Abbott has been drafted in to replace Pat Cummins for the four day games, and James Pattinson will replace Cummins for the one dayrs.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/896393.html

I presume someone will be on standby if Starc has a problem.

No Che Pujara in the India side

I see that Joe Burns is missing from the first match. I haven't heard about him picking up an injury, so I don't know what's going on there. Looking forward to seeing how the boys bat in this. Our bowling looks a bit thin, not sure why Pattinson isn't playing. Cameron Bancroft, Peter Handscomb and Travis Head are all wicket-keeper batsmen, with all three playing exclusively as batsmen for their respective states.

Alviro Patterson wrote:No Che Pujara in the India side :hmmm :dunno

Che made 55.

Looks like more of an Australia C side.

A few people have been calling England a C side this week.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Looks like more of an Australia C side.

yeah hard to see Australia A winning the game/or doing well especially with India sending a very strong A team.

KL Rahul scoring a crucial innings feel sorry for the lad for being ill after scoring a century in his 2nd test.
Pujara needs to score big as well no idea why Kohli doesn't want him at 3 or 6, Kohli right now wants Ashwin 7, Keeper 6.

Although the reason why Australia sent a C team might be that Australia A been touring India for so many years so they probably wanted a new team/squad.
Australia have pretty much visited india every 12-18 months for an A team tour.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Looks like more of an Australia C side.

A number of these players are longer term prospects that the selectors obviously want to have a look at. I'd be happier if they were looking at better bowlers.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Looks like more of an Australia C side.

Got me there. It is all of the up-and-comers and/or the nearlymen. Missing a couple of names, but with the exception of Bancroft, they all have been discussed of being the nextgen, and the Nearlymen provide the experienced heads.

GarlicJam wrote:

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Looks like more of an Australia C side.

Got me there. It is all of the up-and-comers and/or the nearlymen. Missing a couple of names, but with the exception of Bancroft, they all have been discussed of being the nextgen, and the Nearlymen provide the experienced heads.

I'd like to think that the selectors were having a close look at Nic Maddinson, whom I've had my eye on for some time. With Rogers due to retire, I'm not jumping over the moon about Shaun Marsh long term, although he does deserve his chance and he might do well. Joe Burns opens for Queensland and he's a boss at the crease, so I'd be happy with him. It's a pity that Jordan Silk had a mediocre domestic season, although he's got plenty of time. Maddinson is now 23, and averaged 53 for NSW last year, so he's ready. When Australia do bat in this match, I'm hoping to see Maddinson opening the batting with Usman Khawaja, whom we haven't seen the last of in a baggygreen.

SOK has taken a 6 wicket haul in India A's first innings of 301. The Aussies are batting, albeit with a jumbled batting line-up. Peter Handscomb has passed 50. The Aussies are 157/3.