Karun Nair's massive ton sets up India A's strong start

Karun Nair boosted his chances of finding a place in India's XI for the opening Test against England next month with a fantastic unbeaten century on the opening day of India A's first unofficial Test against England Lions.

Walking out to bat as early as the sixth over of the morning after skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran was sent packing for 8, Nair got going with an early boundary and never stopped until the end of the day's play. Yashasvi Jaiswal gave him brief company at the other end and even smashed a six over deep midwicket. However, the opener didn't last long and departed for 24 which then paved the way for a massive partnership between Nair and Sarfaraz Khan.

Despite not being picked in the senior squad, Sarfaraz made quite an impression alongside Nair. Both batters kept the scorecard ticking and batting in brisk fashion to keep the Lions bowling attack at bay. With both batters in the 90s, Lions finally struck, breaking the 181-run partnership with the wicket of Sarfaraz as he fell eight short of a ton.

That wicket didn't open the floodgates though as Nair then joined forces with Dhruv Jurel to frustrate Lions for the rest of the day. The two batters batted out the remaining 34 overs in the day and piled on the agony. Like Sarfaraz, Jurel too scored runs in quick fashion as the India A batters showed no signs of fatigue despite having little time to recover and acclimatise following their IPL commitments.

Nair and Jurel ended up adding 177 runs as India A breached the 400-run mark to eventually finish with 409/3 by stumps. While Jurel finished unbeaten on 82, Nair is now only 14 short of a double ton - something that could firmly push him as a front-runner for a place in India's middle order next month.

409/3 (Karun Nair 186*, Sarfaraz Khan 92, Dhruv Jurel 82*) vs