Harsh Dubey dismissed Emilio Gay to send England Lions two down on the second day of the four-day Unofficial Test in Canterbury on Saturday. Ben McKinney was cleaned up by pacer Anshul Kamboj, who was quite impressive in his lively spell, marked by accuracy and good amount of swing. Earlier, India A raised a massive 557 in in their first innings around Karun Nair’s double hundred. Karun made 204 off 281 balls (26×4, 1×6) as India A continued their strong marchIndia’s young guns have the talent to achieve something special in the upcoming England Test series, provided they back themselves, said AB de Villiers here on Saturday, adding that it’s time for the new generation to step up. With the 25-year-old Shubman Gill at the helm, India will start a new cycle of the World Test Championship with a five-Test tour of England next month without their seasoned campaigners in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who both announced their retirement recently.
There’s lots of talent in India and largely credit to the IPL for that, (it is) really giving great exposure to some of the youngsters at a very early age. We saw Vaibhav Suryavanshi this year (and) many other youngsters, they come in their first year and they look very mature and ready to play cricket and it’s a great platform for Indian cricket,” he said.
The former South African skipper said the tour of England will be a tough test for the young Indian side, but keeping the belief could help them pull off a favourable result.
“They’ve got to take some responsibility on in England, it’ll be a tough test, but they have all the talent in the world and if they believe, maybe they can achieve something special.” De Villiers, who shares a special bond with his former Royal Challengers Bengaluru teammate Kohli, said he will be missed in Test cricket.
“He followed his gut feel. I think he has done a lot for cricket around the world over the years. Luckily, we’ll still see him on the cricket field. He will be missed in Test matches, there is no doubt about it, but he leaves (behind) a great legacy with the red ball,” de Villiers said.alking about the Indian Premier League, de Villiers still backed Punjab Kings, who suffered an eight-wicket thrashing at the hands of RCB in Qualifier 1, to reach the final.
PBKS will take on Mumbai Indians in Ahmedabad on Sunday for Qualifier 2.
“I said quite a while ago, about a month ago, that Gujarat (Titans) and RCB will be in the final. It looks like the odds are against my call but it is still cricket, you never know, it is a knockout match,” he said.
“It takes one or two great performances to turn the pressure onto your opposition. It’s still going to be Punjab but I’ve got a little bit of doubt on my mind after watching last night’s game,” said de Villiers, pointing out at the contest between MI and Gujarat Titans in which the five-times champion emerged winner in the high-scoring Eliminator.