India A vs Australia A: Shreyas Iyer’s road to red-ball return begins

Lucknow: Shreyas Iyer will get a chance to reinstate his red-ball credentials when he leads an India ‘A’ team against Australia ‘A’ in the first of the two four-day matches here at the Ekana Stadium from Tuesday.

The seasoned but discarded Iyer will be eager to make full use of this opportunity.Apart from Iyer, the performance of 30-year-old Abhimanyu Easwaran — who has been on the radar of national selectors for some time now, thanks to his consistent performances in Ranji Trophy — too will be watched.Easwaran had been part of the Test side on five overseas tours — in 2021 (England), 2022 (Bangladesh), 2023-24 (South Africa), 2024-25 (Australia) and 2025 (England) — but is yet to make the playing XI. In the domestic scene, though, he has been super consistent.India ‘A’ head coach Hrishikesh Kanitkar said, “It’s a great opportunity. Most of them have played the Duleep Trophy recently so this is the next step.”