Arya and Suryavanshi in Jitesh-led India A squad at Rising Stars T20 Asia Cup

Jitesh Sharma has been named captain of the India A squad for the upcoming Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Rising Stars Asia Cup, earlier the Emerging Teams tournament, to be played in Doha from November 14 to 23. Naman Dhir has been appointed his deputy

The selectors have also included 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi in the squad, which explains his absence from the four-team Under-19 Challenger Trophy. Over the years, that tournament has been used as a key marker by the junior national selection panel to finalise their squad for next year's Under-19 World Cup - for which Suryavanshi appears to be a certainty.

The 15-member squad, picked by Ajit Agarkar and his senior men's selection panel, comprises some stellar IPL performers, most notably Punjab Kings and Delhi Premier League (DPL) star Priyansh Arya.

In his maiden IPL campaign in 2025, Arya struck 475 runs at a strike rate of 179.24 - the third-best in terms of runs for the franchise behind Shreyas Iyer and Prabhsimran Singh. Last week, Arya was handed a first-class debut by Delhi in the Ranji Trophy.

The other key state and IPL performers include Abishek Porel, currently captaining Bengal in Abhimanyu Easwaran's absence, and Harsh Dubey, who has been a regular feature across various India A squads over the past few months.

The fast bowlers include Gurjapneet Singh, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Yudhvir Singh and Yash Thakur - all of whom are part of BCCI's targeted pool of fast bowlers. Ramandeep Singh and Suryansh Shedge are the seam-bowling allrounders.

Pakistan A and Oman will kick off the tournament, with the showpiece India A vs Pakistan A match slotted for November 16. The teams are divided into two groups: Group A has Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka, while Group B has India, Oman, Pakistan and UAE.

This will be the first cricketing exchange between the men's teams of India and Pakistan since the senior Asia Cup in September, though the senior women's teams faced off at the ODI World Cup earlier this month.

When the men played the Asia Cup, there were no handshakes or any other form of greetings between the players of the two countries, and it ended with India, the tournament champions, leaving Dubai without the trophy.

It emerged that they had decided not to receive the trophy from the ACC chief, Mohsin Naqvi, who also happens to be PCB chairman and the country's interior minister.

India A squad for Rising Stars Asia Cup T20 tournament

Priyansh Arya, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Nehal Wadhera, Naman Dhir (vice-capt), Suryansh Shedge, Jitesh Sharma (capt, wk), Ramandeep Singh, Harsh Dubey, Ashutosh Sharma, Yash Thakur, Gurjapneet Singh, Vijay Kumar Vyshak, Yudhvir Singh, Abishek Porel (wk), Suyash Sharma
Stand-by players: Gurnoor Brar, Kumar Kushagra, Tanush Kotian, Sameer Rizvi, Shaik Rasheed