Abhimanyu Easwaran is finally set for some game time when he leads East Zone against North Zone in the quarter final of the Duleep Trophy, which gets underway at the BCCI Centre of Excellence ground in Bengaluru on Thursday.
The Bengal top-order batsman, captaining East Zone in place of the injured Ishan Kishan, had to warm the bench for the entire England tour of five Tests.
This Duleep game is certainly one good opportunity for Easwaran to make some impactful runs and vie for the No.3 slot of the Indian Test team. In England, neither Sai Sudharsan nor Karun Nair could be much effective in that slot.
So, if Easwaran, who last played in the ‘A’ tour matches in England, gets runs when it really matters, he could well give that No.3 position a slot for the upcoming home Tests against the West Indies and South Africa. Precisely, the game against North Zone is indeed a crucial one for Easwaran as his Duleep campaign for this season will be over if East Zone don’t fare well in this clash.
Like Easwaran, eyes will also be on senior pacer Mohammed Shami for whom this game will be his first in the red-ball format since last season’s Bengal-Madhya Pradesh Ranji Trophy match in Indore.
Given the current situation, Shami's comeback in Test cricket looks an uphill task, especially after missing the tours of Australia and England. He last played for India in their triumphant Champions Trophy campaign earlier this year.
Of course, Shami has been undergoing his set of trainings lately, but will he able to deal with the rigours of a first-class game?
His dodgy knee is always a factor and cannot really be written off. A game-winning spell in this Duleep quarter-final tie may well make the selectors sit up and take notice, but on his part, is Shami mentally ready to return to Test cricket? Only he knows the actual answer.
This Duleep game is also an important one for Mukesh Kumar to stay in the India reckoning.
For North Zone, Test captain Shubman Gill, who was announced as the team captain, is likely to miss the game due to illness.