4th string Board XI for OZ tie owing to the Duleep Trophy

The Indian cricket board's sudden decision to hold Duleep Trophy has now forced the national selectors to name a fourth string Board President's XI squad that will take on Australia in a 50-over warm-up game at the Chepauk on September 12.

Interestingly, Yuvraj Singh was ignored, which once again indicated that selectors are looking ahead. Yuvraj was also not selected for the Irani Cup.

With the top 45 domestic performers selected for the Duleep Trophy, MSK Prasadled committee selected a 15member team that had some of the IPL performers like Rahul Tripathi, Nistish Rana and MS Washington Sundar along with completely unknown entities like Delhi's left-arm quick Kulwant Khejroliya.

It is learnt that Delhi lad Khejroliya is being considered an exciting prospect with his ability to hit mid140s. He was a part of Mumbai Indians squad.

The Indian team management is looking for some leftarm fast bowling options and the move to give Khejroliya a game against international side may just be an opportunity to test his talent.

His has played only seven List A games for Delhi last season, taking 17 wickets.

Some like Odisha's Govinda Poddar and UP's Shivam Chaudhary have also been picked based on some decent Vijay Hazare Trophy performances despite not even scoring 500 runs in the firstclass season. A BCCI official privy to selection matters admitted that the selection committee didn't have too many options.

THE SQUAD:

Rahul Tripathi, Mayank Agarwal, Shivam Chaudhary, Nitish Rana, Govinda Poddar, Gurkeerat Mann, Shreevats Goswami, Akshay Karnewar, Kulwant Khejroliya, Kushang Patel, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Washington Sundar, Rahil Shah. Coach: Hemang Badani.