BCCI announces India A squad for tour of South Africa

Karun Nair has been named as the captain for the longer format. Meanwhile, Manish Pandey, who suffered a side strain during the 2017 IPL, will captain India ‘A’ in the five ODIs.

The BCCI has announced the squads for India A who are scheduled to go to South Africa next month for an ODI tri-series and a two four-day match series. The one-day team will be headed by Manish Pandey, whereas Karun Nair will don the captaincy hat for the four-day games.

The ODI series involving South Africa and Australia, scheduled to be held in July, has already met with an obstacle with the latter’s ongoing pay dispute, which has put the Australia A team’s participation under a cloud. Earlier this week, the South African board announced its teams for the event, with Aiden Markram captaining the four-day squad, and Khaya Zondo being announced skipper for the one-day team.

After a tremendous performance with the bat and a triple ton against England, Karun Nair has been named as the captain for the longer format. Meanwhile, Manish Pandey, who suffered a side strain during the 2017 IPL, will captain India ‘A’ in the five ODIs.

Krunal Pandya and pacer Basil Thampi have earned maiden call-ups. Both players have been included in the 16-man one-day squad. Pandya and Thampi were in excellent form in the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League.

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Rishabh Pant, who is currently with the senior team on their West Indies tour, will be keeping wickets in the limited over format while Jharkhand batsman Ishan Kishan will keep wickets for India ‘A’ in the Tests.

Here are the playing XI for both tour:

India ‘A’ squad for ODI: Mandeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Manish Pandey (Captain), Deepak Hooda, Karun Nair, Krunal Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), Vijay Shankar, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jayant Yadav, Basil Thampi, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Siddarth Kaul.

India ‘A’ squad for Tests: PK Panchal, Abhinav Mukund, Shreyas Iyer, Ankit Bawne, Karun Nair (Captain), Sudip Chatterjee, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hanuma Vihari, Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Aniket Choudhary, Ankit Rajpoot.