The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has confirmed who will be part of the India A squad that will tour Down Under later this year.
The trip – part of the board’s initiatives to expose the senior team’s bench strength to foreign conditions – will comprise of a quadrangular series involving Australia A, South Africa A and Cricket Australia’s National Performance Squad, and two four-day games against Australia A to be played in September.
A single squad has been named for both of the formats and will be led by Naman Ojha. The side features as many as 11 capped players, nine of whom were representing the senior side in the recently concluded tour of Zimbabwe.
Among the call-ups is Shreyas Iyer, a top-order batsman who caught everyone’s attention with strong performances in the Indian Premier League last year and was one of the key architects of Mumbai’s Ranji Trophy win during the 2015-16 domestic season.
With 1321 runs in a single Ranji season, it was hugely anticipated that Iyer would be directly blooded into the senior side, however, the selectors thought otherwise – not including the youngster in the squad that toured Zimbabwe. Others who made it to the team include Iyer’s Mumbai teammate, Akhil Herwadkar and Tamil Nadu’s Vijay Shankar.
While some of the notable omissions include Unmukt Chand, Gurkeerat Singh Mann and Karn Sharma, left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, the highest wicket-taker in last season’s Ranji Trophy, and Faiz Fazal, who made an unbeaten 55 on his international debut a week ago, were included in the squad.
Fixtures:
Quadrangular Series (50 overs):
14 Aug: Australia A vs India A at Townsville
17 Aug: South Africa A vs India A at Townsville
21 Aug: National Performance Squad vs India A at Townsville
25 Aug: South Africa A vs India A at Mackay
27 Aug: National Performance Squad vs India A at Mackay
30 Aug: Australia A vs India A at Mackay
Unofficial Tests:
8 Sep – 11 Sep: Australia A vs India A at Brisbane
15 Sep – 18 Sep: Australia A vs India A at Brisbane
India A squad: Naman Ojha (capt), Faiz Fazal, Akhil Herwadkar, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Varun Aaron, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Barinder Sran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sanju Samson
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