This was intended to be a fixture that prepared India’s Test players for the upcoming two-match series against South Africa. Instead, a few of them will head to Kolkata, having dealt psychological blows as India A, having set a target of 417 runs, haplessly watched South Africa A get home with five wickets to spare at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence on Sunday.

Although South Africa have only Temba Bavuma and Zubayur Hamza who will join the Test squad ahead of the first Test, India do have more than a handful – KL Rahul , B Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal , Rishabh Pant , Dhruv Jurel, Kuldeep Yadav , Mohammed Siraj , Akash Deep – in the mix. While Jurel definitely made the most of this outing, scoring centuries in each innings and thereby making a strong case for a place in the X

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