Mumbai, Jun 2: India A will begin their tour of the West Indies with the first of three first-class matches beginning at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados today. India A’s 15-man squad arrived in the West Indies a few days ago and is being led by Cheteshwar Pujara.

The first-class matches, which are being followed by two T20 and three One-Day games, gives India’s youngsters an opportunity to make their case for a place in the national side before India’s international season commences. With Rahul Dravid having announced his retirement after the tour of Australia earlier in the year, Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary and Robin Bist will all have an opportunity to stake a claim for a place in the Test side. As far as the opening batsmen are concerned, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan and Abhinav Mukund are the options available to the Indians on the tour.

The bowlers too will get a chance at staking a claim with Ashok Dinda and Parvinder Awana leading the pace bowling options which also include Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shami Ahmed. Awana, who plays his first-class cricket for Delhi, came in to the side as a replacement for the injured RP Singh, having impressed with his performances for Kings XI Punjab during the recently concluded IPL. Rahul Sharma alongwith Akshay Darekar and Jalaj Saxena lead the spin challenge. Wriddhiman Saha is the only specialist wicketkeeper in the side.

India A will play the second first-class match against the West Indies A side between June 9-12 at Kingstown after which the final first-class encounter of the series will be played at Gros Islet between June 16-19. The T20 matches will be played on June 23 and June 24 while the three One-Day games will be played on June 27, 29 and July 1 respectively.