India A crumbled against Australia A in the second unofficial Test. After losing the toss and batting first at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, India A was struggling at 153/8 at the time of this report. Wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel is the top scorer, unbeaten on 80. Michael Neser, with four wickets, and Beau Webster, with three, were the destroyers of the Indian batting lineup. KL Rahul (4), who opened the innings, failed to shine. Jurel and Rahul had arrived in Australia earlier in preparation for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

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India's start was disastrous, losing four wickets with only 11 runs on the board. Abhimanyu Easwaran (0) and Sai Sudharsan (0) were dismissed in the first over itself. KL Rahul and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad (4) followed soon after. This is the third consecutive innings where Ruturaj and Abhimanyu have disappointed. Devdutt Padikkal (26) and Jurel then added 53 runs for the fifth wicket before Neser provided the breakthrough for Australia by dismissing the latter.

Nitish Reddy (16) and Tanush Kotian (0), who came in next, also failed to make an impact. Khaleel Ahmed (1) also fell cheaply. Jurel held one end up and helped the score cross 150. Prasidh Krishna (11) is at the crease with Jurel.

India made four changes to the team that played the first match. Ishan Kishan, Baba Indrajith, Navdeep Saini, and Manav Suthar lost their places. KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, Tanush Kotian, and Khaleel Ahmed replaced them. Jurel is the wicketkeeper. Australia A leads the two-match series 1-0.

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