India A took on New Zealand A in the first Unofficial Test at Bengaluru. The India A team played its first game after a hiatus of 8 months. Their last game was against South Africa A in December last year.

Most of the selections for the series were on expected lines, but there were a couple of left-field selections for the series.

While the likes of Priyank Panchal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Saurabh Kumar, Arzan Nagwaswalla, Umran Malik, Sarfaraz Khan were able to retain their spots for the ongoing series. The likes of Devdutt Padikkal, Hanuma Vihari, Ishan Kishan, Prithvi Shaw and Ishan Porel were dropped from the squad which played in South Africa last year.

Instead, the selectors went with Ruturaj Gaikwad who has been around the Indian white-ball set up for a while and a young Tilak Varma who did well in the IPL. Both of these players were included in the playing XI for the first Unofficial Test as well.

The case of Ruturaj Gaikwad

Ruturaj Gaikwad's selection for the Unofficial Tests is an interesting one considering he doesn't have a solid First Class record. The 25-year old has scored 1349 runs in 21 FC games at an average of 38.54. His recent form in white-ball cricket hasn't been the best either. He won the orange-cap in IPL 2021 but he had an underwhelming IPL 2022.

He couldn't make the most out of the 4 games he played against South Africa after the IPL either. But the selectors still showed faith in his potential and kept him in the team for the West Indies series and the Zimbabwe tour. They were not wrong to keep him in the side by any stretch as his record for India A in List-A cricket is impressive. He had scores of 187*, 125*, 94, 84, 74, 3, 85, 20, 99 for India A in List A cricket during the home series against Sri Lanka A and in the Caribbean against West Indies A. That's 677 runs at an average of 112.83 and strike rate of 116.72.

He therefore definitely has the potential and the skill set. But he didn't get any games there. So, the question which arises is, how are the selectors looking at him for the future? Is he in their plans for the Test Team, or is he the back-up opener in the white-ball side? You decide.

The curious case of Prithvi Shaw and Hanuma Vihari

The omission of Prithvi Shaw and Hanuma Vihari from the squad is also something to ponder about.

Vihari wasn't selected for the home series against New Zealand last year. He was added to the India A squad for the South Africa tour after the initial squad was announced. Then he took the number 3 spot in the Indian team for the home series against Sri Lanka. He held onto his position for the rescheduled 5th Test against England. But in the chances he got, he could not make it count, he scored just 20 and 11 runs in the 5th Test.

Now, he is set to lead South Zone in the Duleep Trophy which begins from 8th September. The question one might ask is what would have been an ideal preparation for Vihari when it comes to India's remaining matches in the current World Test Championship cycle, playing the Duleep Trophy or playing for India A!

The other question one might ask is if he is in the plans of the Indian test team or not. The way the team management has handled him in the last year makes his future in the test team look bleak.

The situation of Shaw is a bit tricky. After an impressive start to his Test career, it all went downhill for the Mumbai youngster. He was dropped from the Indian side after a poor showing in the Adelaide Test in Australia in 2020-2021 Border-Gavaskar series. But after an impressive IPL 2021, he was selected for India's tour of Sri Lanka. In Fact he was flown as a replacement player for the England Test series from that Sri Lanka tour when Mayank Agarwal got injured.

He later toured South Africa with the A side as well. So he was in the scheme of things for the national side as recently as December. But after the domestic season, he hasn't been considered for any of the formats. He too will be playing in the Duleep Trophy.

Now the questions that need to be answered are on what basis the team for this particular series was selected.