IND-A vs AUS-A: Slow surface set to test batters as India looks to seal unofficial series v Australia

India-A, led by Devdutt Padikkal, won the first unofficial Test by 162 runs, and will hope to complete a clean sweep against Australia-A at the same venue.

Updated : Sep 28, 2026 21:41 IST , Puducherry - 3 MINS READ

The match will also have an evolving subplot: Devdutt Padikkal and B. Sai Sudharsan vying for the No. 3 spot in the Indian team. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/R. Ragu

Batters on either side will hope to find their feet and hold sway in the slow conditions of the Siechem Cricket Stadium in Puducherry as the second unofficial Test between India-A and Australia-A begins on Thursday.

Three of the four innings in the opening game concluded inside 60 overs, with the first innings being the only exception courtesy of ton-up Kumar Kushagra. Devdutt Padikkal and B. Sai Sudharsan got their eye in, but only by piling up lengthier essays will they fully utilise this ‘A’ fixture, which is primarily aimed at attuning them for next year’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Between Padikkal and Sudharsan, there’s an evolving subplot too, with both southpaws vying for the No. 3 spot in the Indian team. Sudharsan has outscored Padikkal on aggregate so far, but won’t displace the Karnataka batter unless he comes up with a game-changing effort.

Aman Mokhade, Shaik Rasheed and Yash Rathod drew blanks in the first game, and India-A coach Lakshmipathy Balaji will have a predicament at hand, with N. Jagadeesan and Aayush Pandey waiting on the bench.

The visitors are on stickier ground. The Australia-A batting lineup boasted of four capped batters, yet none could deliver a fifty across the two innings. Fergus O’Neill’s 47, which came at No. 8, in the second outing was the highest for any Aussie batter.

Four of the Australia-A top five – Nathan McSweeney, Peter Handscomb, Jason Sangha, Campbell Kellaway – average over 50 against spin, but accustomed to the ball coming onto the bat in bouncy conditions Down Under, none could tame Shams Mulani and Tanush Kotian when the ball stayed low. India-A might look at slotting in left-arm orthodox Tripurana Vijay to compound Australia-A woes.

It still has a curveball up its sleeve in opener Sam Harpar, who had scored 677 runs at a strike rate of 82 for Victoria in the Sheffield Shield last season. But his inclusion will invariably draw curtains on one of the big names’ hopes of a BGT call-up.

Spinners shared a majority of the spoils, but pacers, who returned with 17 of the 40 wickets, too conjured up unplayable deliveries on a surface offering uneven bounce.

“There was hardly any bounce on offer, and hence, the only option to get wickets was to keep the stumps in play. [We needed to] put a bit of extra effort on the length balls to get those leg-before decisions and the surprise bounce,” Anshul Kamboj had said after the first game.

Australia-A might turn to the capped Jhye Richardson, who could draw from his limited-overs experience and use subtle variations to use such conditions.

There will, however, be no tweaks in Australia-A’s spin pairing of Todd Murphy and Corey Rocchiccioli. The former got match figures of seven for 135 in the first game, and he’ll cherish more wickets as keepsakes before he returns to these conditions in January.

If there’s anything left to do for Murphy, it’s in learning from the Indian spinners’ change of pace. Mulani and Kotian tossed up the ball fuller and slower more often, to get more out of the deteriorating surface, and thus threaten more than their counterparts.