India A skipper Dhawan flattens Bangladesh A with strokeful 150

Going into the only unofficial Test against Bangladesh A at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Sunday, India A will know that their fortunes could hinge heavily on the efforts of those players who stand to gain most from impressive performances.

The left-hander was racing against time to get fit before the all-important series after getting injured in the first Test in Galle in Sri Lanka. But now he is back with a bang and scored 116 runs off just 112 deliveries, a strike rate of more than 100, as his innings included 16 fours and 2 sixes. Resuming the day at 161/3, Shikhar Dhawan continued in his aggressive manner from the opening day to reach 150, before equally entertaining knocks by Karun Nair and Vijay Shankar helped India reach 411/5 in their first innings. Sabbir scored an unbeaten 122 off 131 balls – an innings which featured 23 fours and a six.

Bangladesh A were 6/4 but then Nasir Hossain scored 32 and had a partnership of 44 with Sabbir Rehman.

Shuvagata, who is in fine form on this tour, scored yet another half-century before being dismissed for 62.

But the visitors stare at defeat as India A will now be looking to pick the remaining eight wickets on the third and final day’s play and pour water on the rivals’ confidence ahead of their home series against Australia.

India A: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Abhinav Mukund, Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Baba Aparajith, Naman Ojha, Jayant Yadav, Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Gopal, Abhimanyu Mithun, Varun Aaron, Ishwar Pandey, Sheldon Jackson.