KL Rahul had requested the BCCI to allow him to participate in the second India A game against England Lions.
It’s not the first time that Rahul, now the side’s senior most batter with 58 caps, after the retirements of stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, will be turning out for India ‘A’ ahead of an important overseas Test tour.
Last year, shortly after India lost the third Test to New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai and suffered an unprecedented 3-0 series defeat at home, Rahul and wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel flew to Melbourne to turn out for India ‘A’ in their red-ball game against Australia ‘A’ at the MCG ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
With Rahul having scored two centuries as an opener on Test tours of England, his experience at the top will be very vital for India to navigate the challenge of facing the moving ball in the initial stage of an innings and then set a total to challenge the ultra-attacking batting style of the Ben Stokes-led side.
Squads
England Lions Squad: Tom Haines, Ben McKinney, Emilio Gay, Max Holden, James Rew(w/c), Jordan Cox, Chris Woakes, Josh Tongue, Ajeet Dale, Farhan Ahmed, Rocky Flintoff, Edward Jack, George Hill
India A: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran(c), Karun Nair, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel(w), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shardul Thakur, Harsh Dubey, Anshul Kamboj, Harshit Rana, Mukesh Kumar, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Khaleel Ahmed, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Deep, Manav Suthar, Tanush Kotian, Ruturaj Gaikwad