India A chase a 2-0 sweep in Puducherry as Australia A's Test hopefuls regroup

India A begin the second and final four-day match against Australia A in Puducherry on Tuesday holding a 1-0 lead and the chance to finish the red-ball leg unbeaten

The match starts at the Cricket Association Pondicherry Siechem Ground at 9.30am, on the same square where India A won the first unofficial Test by 162 runs on Friday. It is the last red-ball fixture of the tour before three one-day matches close it out in October.

For the visitors the stakes run past the series. Australia's Test tour of India falls early in 2027, and the four-day squad was picked with that in mind, built around Test-capped names in Peter Handscomb, Nathan McSweeney, Sam Konstas and Todd Murphy.

India A are led by Devdutt Padikkal, with Sai Sudharsan as his deputy. Padikkal, who scored 59 in the second innings last week, said on taking the job that leadership was something he enjoyed and that captaining Karnataka had been "a great learning curve for me, so I am looking forward to carrying the same experience to the India A setup as well".

Mulani's seven wickets set the pattern

The first match turned on left-arm spin. Shams Mulani took 4-67 in Australia A's first innings and 3-57 in the second, seven in the match, working the footmarks once the surface began to break up on the second day.

Tushar Deshpande matched him with three in the second innings as Australia A, set 363, were bowled out for 200 midway through day four. They had managed only 171 first time round.

Both sides go again on the same ground within a week, which gives the tourists a second look at conditions that caught them out and gives India A little reason to change their method.

Kushagra's hundred still the difference

Wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra was the player of the match for scores of 113 and an unbeaten 46, the second of them steadying an India A second innings that never settled.

Tanush Kotian's 69 and a fifty from Sai Sudharsan were the other substantial contributions in a first-innings 334. India A were dismissed for 199 second time round, and the lead was still comfortably beyond Australia A.

Australia A's batting problem

No Australia A batter passed fifty across the four days. Jason Sangha's 46 was the only score above 30 in the first innings; in the second, McSweeney made 35 and Fergus O'Neill 47.

O'Neill and Murphy put on 67 for the eighth wicket to delay the end rather than change it. The bowling had done enough — Corey Rocchiccioli and Murphy took four wickets each — which leaves the top order as the thing to fix in Puducherry.

Auditions for a tour of India

The four-day party also carries Brendan Doggett, Jack Edwards, Sam Harper, Liam Hatcher, Campbell Kellaway, O'Neill, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Rocchiccioli and Liam Scott, with Handscomb captaining.

Cricket Australia chairman George Bailey framed the trip as preparation rather than a results exercise. "We consider these tours an important part of performance and developing game styles in sub-continent conditions," he said when the squad was named.

On the evidence of the first match, the selectors will have learned as much from how their batters handled turn on a fourth-day pitch as from anything else.

What India A are playing for

A draw is enough for India A to take the red-ball leg, but a second win would complete a 2-0 sweep and strengthen the cases of a group of players circling the senior side.

Mulani, Kotian, Kushagra and Deshpande all left the first match with something to show for it, and a home season that runs deep into the winter gives the selectors plenty of reason to keep watching.

The second unofficial Test runs from Tuesday to Friday in Puducherry, with the one-day leg of the tour to follow on October 6, 9 and 11.

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