India A tours are a superb stepping stone for a place in the national side – the likes of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly owed their big breakthroughs to India A performances

Wisden CricInfo staff10-Aug-2003India A tours are a superb stepping stone for a place in the national side – the likes of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly owed their big breakthroughs to India A performances. The latest India A tour, to England, was a perfect stage for fringe players to make a case for higher honours. There have perhaps never been as many A team players in serious contention for national selection; Aavishkar Salvi, the medium-pacer from Mumbai known for his Glenn McGrath-esque action and accuracy, Wasim Jaffer, the elegant opening batsman who has already enjoyed a stint in the Test team, and Sridharan Sriram, the doughty top-order batsman, were three of the players to impress. They spoke to Wisden CricInfo about what this tour meant for them.Aavishkar Salvi
I was very eager to get started as I was injured for the first five games of the tour. Even before going to England I had a right-hand webbing injury, but the selectors gave me the green signal as the injury was a minor one and would heal soon. With the stitches removed on the morning of the first game, I took the ball to test myself during warm-up, only to cut the webbing again and get three stitches. It was frustrating to have to wait in the sidelines, but I had to be patient till the sixth match, which took 15 days.The English conditions were good for swing bowling and the wickets were true – good for both batting and bowling. All the fast bowlers in the squad performed well, taking advantage of the movement in theair. I picked up three wickets in my first game and was happy to contribute with the bat, scoring 20 runs and taking part in a crucial last-wicket partnership of 46 with Irfan Pathan, which enabled us to scrape past Lancashire.My best came against the South Africans, who had fielded a full-strength batting line-up in preparation for the first Test against England. I was delighted to keep them at bay and pick up four wickets. Madan Lal, who was the bowling coach at the preparatory camp at the NCA in Bangalore, had told me that my strength was to pitch short of length, whereas in England it was important to pitch it fuller. I kept that in mind and it worked wonderfully. But I ended on a bad note: my leading arm was dropping and I was just bowling on one side of the wicketthe off side. I came back well on the second day but it was not enough to erase the disappointment of the first day.After each game Wasim [Jaffer] – who was my roommate – and I used to discuss the game for ten minutes. We would then do the gym workouts before returning to the room after dinner. With all our time going in traveling, we had hardly any time to chill out.There are always lessons to learn from such tours. I have always taken each selection as a stepping stone for further success and having done fairly well during this tour, I think I have a good chance to be picked for the national squad. However, having said that, I have learnt another important thing: to play at the Test level, one needs to be super-fit. I am working seriously on my fitness, with the help of the programme that Adrian Le Roux [former trainer of the Indian team] had given me.Wasim JafferAt the start of the tour I knew that if I did well, I would be a favourite for an opening slot in the Indian team. With John Wright himself present at the NCA camp in Bangalore, all the players knew that this was an important chance to prove themselves.During India’s tour of England last year I performed miserably – I made just one fifty in four innings, and at the international level you need to be more consistent and. It was playing on my mind before this tour, and I had no excuse – like the conditions and the wickets – having played here for nearly five years now.My aim for this series was to occupy the crease for as long as I could. As an opener I wanted to tighten my defence, play the new ball well, and not do anything silly in the first hour – I have got out too often within the first ten overs. A number of people have helped me improve this area of the game: John Wright, Dilip Vengsarkar and Sunil Gavaskar among them. All of them gave me the same advice: “Stay at the crease, get your eye in and the runs will come automatically.”I was especially keen on doing well in the game against South Africa, and I ended up making 90 and 54 against their full-strength bowling attack. That match, and the 67 I made against Yorkshire in a one-dayer, gave me the confidence that I could score my runs at a quick pace. That was important for me, as I am not an automatic inclusion in the shorter version of the game.We wanted to keep a clean slate and finish the tour without losing a game. We followed on in our last match, against Warwickshire, but recovered well, and I made a double-century to end the tour on a good note. I hadn’t begun the tour too well, but once I got into my groove, things got better for me.

Sridharan SriramI had gone to England with an open mind for two reasons. Firstly, I saw it as a great opportunity to I’d never been to England as a batsman before. I’d been there with Sandeep Patil as a bowler in 1994, when I played for India under-19s. I didn’t really know what to expect of the wickets and the conditions, as a batsman. Before I left, I’d spoken to John Wright at the camp and he told me how important it was to be tight outside the off stump as the ball moves around a great deal more. “Play long,” that was my motto on the tour.I should be thankful to Sandeep Patil and the captain for making me stay back. I was injured early on and we didn’t know how long I would take to recover. But Patil made me stay back and that was a very good gesture on his part. I got a chance to play against Surrey at the Oval and I had not practiced for a long time before that. I wasn’t in good touch at all. When I began my innings I was struggling a bit and not really timing the ball well. I then decided that the best thing to do was to hang around. Gradually things worked out for me, I started hitting the ball well and I got my rhythm back. From then on, I think I was quite consistent.This tour’s given me the confidence that I can do well in the international arena. I have not had a great start to my international career, I’m aware of that, but getting runs abroad, in alien conditions, always gives you a lot of satisfaction. The most important thing this tour has done for me is that it’s given me great self-belief.