While Padikkal and Prasidh will fly out with a majority of the Indian contingent from Sydney on Wednesday, Abhimanyu was granted permission to fly out a day in advance. He was subsequently booked on an earlier flight by the Cricket Association of Bengal to be able to link up with the state squad in Vadodara, after stops in Singapore and Ahmedabad.
Prasidh and Padikkal are expected to join the Karnataka squad by January 10, ahead of their quarter-final game against Baroda a day later. Initially part of only the India A squad that was on a shadow tour prior to the Border-Gavaskar series, Padikkal was an addition to the Test squad following Rohit Sharma’s late arrival because of the birth of his son. Padikkal featured in India’s 295-run win in Perth, but wasn’t picked in any of the subsequent Tests.
Prasidh, meanwhile, played the last Test in Sydney – his first Test appearance in a year. He finished with a match haul of six wickets, including the wickets of Steven Smith in both innings. Padikkal and Prasidh had impressed in both the four-day fixtures for India A prior to the Test series.
For Abhimanyu, the game against Haryana will be his first official fixture in two months, after he spent all five Tests in Australia on the sidelines. Having been in the race to be a back-up opener who may have been in with a shout to play in Perth in Rohit’s absence, scores of 7, 12, 0 and 17 in four innings for India A in Australia dented his chances of earning a Test debut.
Prior to the India A tour, though, he had been in rip-roaring form, hitting four first-class hundreds in four matches across the season-opening Duleep Trophy and the Ranji Trophy that followed.
In the aftermath of India’s 3-1 series loss in Australia, which also meant conceding the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after ten years, head coach Gautam Gambhir had stated his desire to see Test players making themselves available to play domestic cricket wherever possible.
“I would always like everyone to play domestic cricket,” he had said. “That is how much importance domestic cricket needs to be given. Not only one game. If they are available and they have the commitment to play red ball cricket, everyone should play domestic cricket. As simple as it can get. If you don’t give importance to domestic cricket, you will never get the desired players that you want.”
