Shardul Thakur replaces injured Prasidh Krishna in India A squad

Shardul Thakur has replaced Prasidh Krishna in the India A squad for the ongoing three-match unofficial Test series against New Zealand A.

The 26-year-old Prasidh was forced to pull out of the series because of a back injury. "Shardul Thakur has been selected to replace Prasidh Krishna, who suffered a back injury on the eve of the first match against New Zealand A," a BCCI official told PTI.

Prasidh couldn't participate in the first four-day game, which ended in a draw on Sunday. In the absence of Prasidh, India A went in with Mukesh Kumar, Yash Dayal and Arzan Nagwaswalla.

Thakur was earlier named in the West Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy, but Saurashtra's Chetan Sakariya will now take his place in the zonal squad. Thakur, who was on a holiday in Thailand, will now join the India A team in Hubbali.

Sakariya was picked by the West Zone selectors on Sunday in the Ajinkya Rahane-led side, which will play in the inter-zonal tournament, scheduled to be held from September 8 to 25 in Tamil Nadu.

India A and New Zealand A will face off in the next two games of the series on September 8 and 15 in Hubbali and Bengaluru respectively.

India A squad: Priyank Panchal (capt), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraaz Khan, Tilak Varma, KS Bharat (wk), Upendra Yadav (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Saurabh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar, Yash Dayal, Arzan Nagwaswalla

West Zone squad for Duleep Trophy: Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Chirag Jani, Het Patel, Hardik Tamore, Shams Mulani, Tanish Kotian, Atit Seth, Chintan Gaja, Chetan Sakariya, Jaydev Unadkat and Satyajeet Bachhav