Naman Ojha to lead India A in Australia
Unmukt Chand, who led India A to victory against Bangladesh A in the one-day series in September in Bangalore, has been dropped, and Naman Ojha will lead the squad on the tour
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Jun-2016
Naman Ojha replaced Unmukt Chand as the one-day captain • AFP
Ten changes were made to the India A squad that will play Australia A, South Africa A and Cricket Australia's National Performance Squad in a quadrangular series in Townsville and Mackay in August. The tour also comprises two four-day games against Australia A in Brisbane in September.
Unmukt Chand, who led India A to victory against Bangladesh A in their last one-day series last September, has been dropped, and Naman Ojha will lead the team in both formats. He was in prime form when the team had been in Australia in 2014, scoring 219*, 101* and 110 in three successive innings.
Shreyas Iyer, who recorded the second-highest aggregate in a Ranji Trophy season recently, earned his first call up for an overseas tour with India A. Iyer scored 1414 runs in the 2015-16 first-class season but could not carry that success into the IPL, where he managed just 30 runs in six innings.
Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who took 51 wickets in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy - the most by any bowler, was also called up. Varun Aaron is set to lead the fast-bowling attack.
Faiz Fazal, who scored an unbeaten 55 on his international debut against Zimbabwe in June, found a place as well. He will have Axar Patel, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Kedar Jadhav and Barinder Sran as team-mates again.
Sanju Samson, who said he had learnt to bat in the middle order when India A won the title in the last quadrangular one-day series in Australia, has been picked again.
Tamil Nadu allrounder Vijay Shankar and Mumbai opener Akhil Herwadkar also found spots. Herwadkar scored 879 runs in 11 matches at 48.83 in the Ranji Trophy to finish second in the tournament's batting charts.
Apart from Chand, Mayank Agarwal, Rishi Dhawan, S Aravind, Karn Sharma and Gurkeerat Singh were the other notable omissions.
India A begin their campaign against Australia A on August 14 and end it against the same team on September 18.
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