Duleep Trophy: Navdeep Saini continue to make impact for India A, removes Mayank Agarwal and Shubman Gill on Day 2

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India B, who were in all sorts of trouble against India A after getting reduced to 94/7, continued their fight back on Day 2 of the ongoing Duleep Trophy 2024 first-round match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Bengaluru.

Musheer Khan, the 19-year-old who completed his hundred on Duleep Trophy debut on the opening day, finished his marathon innings at 181 off 373 balls. Navdeep Saini brought up his fifty and scored 56 off 144 balls before falling to Akash Deep.

Kuldeep Yadav was the one to pick the prized wicket of Musheer and bring end to his 205-run stand for the eight wicket with Saini. The stunning fightback from the duo helped India B finish at 321.

Later, Navdeep Saini reminded of his presence among the fringe pacers with a quality new ball spell that helped India B send Mayank Agarwal and captain Shubman Gill back in the pavilion before the end of Day 2 play.

India A will resume at 134/2 on Saturday. KL Rahul (23, not out off 80 balls) and Riyan Parag (27 not out of 49 balls) will have the onus to carry forward the innings against the likes of Saini, Mukesh Kumar, Yash Dayal, Nitish Reddy and Sai Kishore.

Saini, who is out of favour since the 2021 away series against Australia, showed some spark to eke out the wickets of India A skipper Shubman Gill (25) and his opening partner Mayank Agarwal (36).

The right-arm quick broke the first-wicket alliance 57 between Gill and Agarwal at the stroke of tea to give his side the first breakthrough.

Gill, who crunched a couple of exquisite fours off left-arm seamer Yash Dayal, shouldered arms to an incoming delivery that crashed onto the stumps.

Senior opener Mayank Agarwal, who is also on a comeback trail after going out of favour since the 2022 Pink Ball Test against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru, looked comfortable during his stay in the middle.

His cover drive off Saini was a lovely piece of timing, but the right-hander soon fell to the same bowler, jabbing a down-the-leg delivery to stumper Rishabh Pant, who was tidy behind the stumps, made an acrobatic dive to his left to complete a wonderful catch to send back Agarwal.

If Navdeep Saini, who is playing his first red-ball game since this January, can pick a few more wickets here, the Delhiite can add another page to his comeback chart that now includes appearances for India A sides against England Lions and South Africa A in December-January.

Rahul and Parag were put through the wringer by the pace triumvirate of Saini, Mukesh and Nitish on a pitch that still offered a good bit of assistance to the quicks.

(With Input From PTI)