Musheer Khan left India A captain Shubman Gill frustrated with his teasing act during a mammoth knock in Duleep Trophy. Musheer Khan is a classic case of batters growing in confidence with runs behind their back. The 19-year-old India B batter, who started shakily on day 1 of the Duleep Trophy match against India A at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, seeing wickets tumble at the other end, built a mammoth innings to put his side in a good position.
At lunch on day 2, Musheer had grown so much in confidence that he not only played lofted strokes and took other attacking options but also teased India A bowlers. One of the salient features of his batting has been his tactic of walking down to the fast bowlers. He did the same on Friday. The only difference was that this time, he made cheeky gestures at the likes of Avesh Khan and Akash Deep to throw the ball at the stumps when he was outside the crease.Musheer’s audacity left India A captain Shubman Gill frustrated, who was seen asking keeper Dhruv Jurel to spring into action and inflict a run out.
Gill’s reaction may appear to be a direct reaction to Musheer’s tease, but many other factors contributed to Gill losing his cool. The foremost one was India B’s recovery. They were 94/7 at one stage, and since then, the India A bowlers have failed to separate Musheer and Navdeep Saini. The duo put together a 205-run partnership for the eighth wicket, taking India B close to 300.
Musheer’s masterclass floors India A
Musheer, who resumed at 105, smashed 181, while Saini held his end with some solid technique. There were multiple occasions when India A bowlers came close to get Musheer out but on each occasion, the DRS saved him. Musheer was in fact given out caught twice by the on-field umpire but the decision was reversed as the Mumbai batter opted for DRS.
Akash Deep, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav and Shivam Dube toiled hard for no success in the morning session. Musheer played some attacking strokes off the backfoot, one of them was pull off for six. Immediately after getting a caught-behind decision against him overturned, Musheer deposited spinner Riyan Parag deep into the stands for easily the biggest six of the match so far.
