Pujara included in Mumbai A squad

Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan, neither of whom play for Mumbai, have been named in the Mumbai A squad for the warm-up game against the visiting England side, to be played at the Dr DY Patil Sports Stadium in Navi Mumbai from November 3 to 5.

Saurashtra don't begin their Ranji Trophy campaign until the second round of matches starting on November 9, which freed up Pujara for this tour game. While Pujara has taken over the No. 3 spot in India's Test side after Rahul Dravid's retirement earlier in the year, Delhi opener Dhawan will get another chance to show his prowess against a top-notch bowling attack after scoring two hundreds and a half-century in his previous two first-class matches.

Dhawan was originally named in the 14-member squad for the first tour game against England, to be played at the Cricket Club of India's Brabourne Stadium from October 30, but had to withdraw as his wedding is scheduled for the first day of the game.

There had been some controversy over the decision to not pick any spinners in the India A squad for England's first warm-up game. For the second game, the Mumbai selection panel, headed by the national chief selector Sandeep Patil, included one specialist spinner and another part-timer in the squad led by Suryakumar Yadav. Twenty-year-old legspinner Sagar Gorivale will be assisted by part-time offspinner Abhishek Raut.

Mumbai A squad: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Cheteshwar Pujara, Shikhar Dhawan, Hiken Shah, Bhavin Thakkar, Sufiyan Shaikh (wk), Nikhil Patil (Jr), Abhishek Raut, Kshemal Waingankar, Balwinder Singh Sandhu (Jr), Sagar Gorivale, Javed Khan, Neelkanth Parab, Bravish Shetty, Shardul Thakur.