India A vs Australia A: Abhimanyu Easwaran, Nitish Reddy, Prasidh Krishna To Be Under Close Scrutiny

The outings of Abhimanyu Easwaran, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Prasidh Krishna will be the primary focal points of India A's four-day match against their Australian counterparts, starting on Thursday. Easwaran, Nitish and Pradish have been included in India's squad for the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, beginning on November 22, and the thinktank will be eager to know how they fare in Australian conditions. Easwaran's performance will, however, have far more significance as the 29-year-old opener could potentially Rohit Sharma's replacement if the captain skips a match or two against Australia for personal reasons.

Easwaran, who is also the vice-captain of India A here, is a vastly experienced campaigner having played 99 First-Class matches to score 7638 runs with 27 hundreds and 29 fifties.

He has also been part of the India squad in the past but what inspires confidence is his recent form in First-Class matches.

The right-hander struck 157 and 116 for India B in the Duleep Trophy before making a 191 against Mumbai for Rest of India in the Irani Trophy and made another hundred in his final red-ball game before flying out to Australia – an unbeaten 127 against Uttar Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy.

So, he has the body of work to feel in fine fettle ahead of the match against Australia A, though the conditions here will be vastly different from what he has experienced so far this season in India.

On the other hand, Nitish does not boast of such impressive First-Class numbers, as he has been drafted into squad for his perceived ability as a pace-bowling all-rounder and, even in that, batting is his stronger suit.

In the Duleep Trophy earlier this year, Nitish made two ducks with a highest of 40 in five matches while