Chance for Rest of India colts to stake claim

The three-day game against Rest of India therefore provides an ideal opportunity for the English boys to get into the groove before they play India U-19 in the first Test to be played here itself from January 9.

Having reached Mumbai late Tuesday night from Pune, the English team chose to skip practice in the morning and reportedly visited the National Park as to relax themselves.

The Rest of India boys, however, had a tough grind under the watchful eyes of coach Lalchand Rajput who termed the game as a ‘good test for the youngsters.’‘‘Ours is a good allround team studded with a lot of batsmen and effective bowlers.’’

Rajput said Rest of India ‘‘would look to exploit the weakness of playing spin of the England team,’’ hoping for the pitch to assist spin.

‘‘It’s a good game on hands for the Rest and a chance for them to stake claims for the Test team.’’

The Teams:
England (from): Ian Bell (Captain), Mark Wallace, Nicky Peng, Kadeer Ali, Gary Pratt, Monty Panesar, Ian Pattison, John Saddler, Justin Bishop, Chris Tremlett, Gordon Muchall, Andrew McGarry, Robert Ferley, Kyle Hogg, Nadeem Malik.Rest of India (from): K Khadkikar (Captain), Kiran Jadhav (both Maharashtra), Arindam Das, Sabhumay Das (both Bengal), Dharmichand, Steve Laxarus (Karnataka), Mohnish Mishra, Maninder Singh, OP Yadav (all MP), Gaganinder Singh, Gagandeep Singh (Punjab), Parthiv Patel (Gujarat), YD Rao (Andhra), Tushar Shah (Tripura), Surendra Singh (Rlys).