Follow UsKhaleel Ahmed picked up four wickets on day three of the second four-day match between India A and England Lions, making a strong impression with the ball ahead of the five-match England-India Test series. KL Rahul and Abhimanyu Easwaran also got valuable time in the middle, scoring fifties to keep their preparations on track.
The Lions were 192/3 at the end of day two, trailing by 156 runs with seven wickets remaining. However, that’s when Khaleel took over and dismissed Jordan Cox, James Rew, George Hill and Chris Woakes in the space of 10 runs and reduced England Lions to 229/7.
Farhan Ahmed (24), Josh Tongue (36*) and Eddie Jack (16) added 84 runs for the last two wickets, but India A still managed to get away with a first-innings lead of 21 runs. Apart from Khaleel, Anshul Kamboj and Tushar Deshpande picked up two wickets each.
Khaleel, who had a pretty good Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 for Chennai Super Kings (CSK), has been in good form in red-ball cricket as well. Since 2024, he has picked up 45 wickets in 12 first-class games at an average of 22.9 and a strike rate of 41.2.
India already have a left-arm seamer - Arshdeep Singh - in their squad for the five-match Test series in England, but considering this is a long tour, the team management could ask a couple of players from the ‘A’ squad to stay back with the main set-up. The first England-India Test will be played at Headingley from June 20.
After England Lions were bowled out for 327, Yashasvi Jaiswal (5) got out to George Hill without contributing much, but Rahul and Easwaran put on 88 runs for the second wicket. Rahul got out to Eddie Jack after hitting 51 off 64, while Easwaran fell to Chris Woakes after getting 80 off 92 deliveries. The two hit 19 fours between them.
At stumps, India were 163/4 in 33 overs, leading by 184 runs, with Dhruv Jurel and Nitish Kumar Reddy unbeaten on 6 and 1, respectively.