Before their departure to Sri Lanka for a 3-match official Test Series, many cricketers played in India A team against the visiting Australia A in Chennai’s MA Chidambaram stadium. The first test, played during July 22-25, 2015 ended in a draw but the second-string Australian side led by Usman Khwaja beat India A by 10 wickets in the second test that ended on August 1, 2015. The Indian squad was led by Cheteshwar Pujara and they did quite well in the first test. Virat Kohli joined the India A side in the second test but Pujara continued to lead the side. Except for Karun Nair’s 50, India’s batting crumbled against Gurinder Sandhu’s fine spell of seam bowling. After the hosts were bowled out for 135, Australia piled up 349, helped by opener Cameron Bancroft’s 150 runs. India played well in the second innings but their score of 274 was not enough to prevent a 10-wicket win for Australia. Sandhu was the wrecker once again as he picked up 4 more wickets. Australia A thus ended the series with a 1-0 victory.
India conducted themselves better in the second knock with six batmen crossing 30-plus but Pujara failed once again. Gurinder Sandhu continued his damaging spell in India’s second innings as well and snapped up four wickets. India lost their last 5 wickets for just 64 runs and handed a 61-run victory target to Australia A. The visitors had all the time in the world to achieve the meager target but Khwaja and Bancroft didn’t want to wait too long. Batting in T-20 fashion, the two Australia A openers reached the target in 6.1 overs taking just 21 minutes of playing time and won the two-match series 1-0.