'Fit' Samson returns to India A squad
Iyer to lead four-day and one of the limited-overs squad in the quadrangular series involving Australia A and South Africa A
ESPNcricinfo staff
23-Jul-2018
BCCI
Sanju Samson has returned to the India A squad for the quadrangular series at home, after missing the tour of England because of fitness concerns. Samson was withdrawn from the England touring party two days prior to departure because of a failed Yo-Yo test, which the Indian team management has adopted as a benchmark towards fitness.
Samson, whose reading was reportedly well below the prescribed 16:1 mark, was replaced by Ishan Kishan. While Samson will keep for India A, Kishan has now been named wicketkeeper for India B.
Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer will lead the India A squad for the two four-day games against South Africa A in the first half of August. Both matches will take place in Bengaluru, and will be preceded by a three-day practice game in the city.
Iyer will also lead India Ain the quadrangular series that will follow, with Manish Pandey named captain of India B. In the quadrangular series that will run from August 17 to 29 in Vijayawada, India A and India B will be joined by South Africa A and Australia A.
These will be followed by four-day games against Australia A, with the BCCI saying that the squad for those games would be picked at a later date.
In parallel, the Duleep Trophy will kick off India's domestic season, also on August 17, with India Blue, India Red and India Green competing. Faiz Fazal will lead Blue, with Abhinav Mukund and Parthiv Patel named captains of Red and Green respectively.
Given that the Duleep Trophy will run till September 8, there is no overlap of players between the quadrangular one-day tournament and the Duleep Trophy, and it looks likely that the players picked to face Australia A will also be picked from among those not playing in the Duleep Trophy but part of the quadrangular series.
In an embarrassing incident*, the BCCI was also forced to make a late change to the Duleep Trophy squad after originally picking Punjab wicketkeeper Abhishek Gupta for India Red. Gupta is currently in the midst of a doping suspension he will serve till September 14. Vidarbha wicketkeeper Akshay Wadkar, who struck his maiden first-class century during the Ranji Trophy final earlier this year, has been named as his replacement.
Prithvi Shaw and Yuzvendra Chahal are also part of the squad for the four-day matches against South Africa A. Axar Patel, who will be in the squad for the first game, will be replaced by Shahbaz Nadeem for the second.
The two Indian sides for the quadrangular series have a mix of players who have been regulars among the rung below the national team with those who caught the eye during IPL 2018, and include Shaw, Suryakumar Yadav, Nitish Rana, Sanju Samson, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Chahar and Shivam Mavi in India A; with Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Ishan Kishan, Jayant Yadav, Siddarth Kaul and Prasidh Krishna in India B.
Squads:
For four-day games against South Africa A:
India A: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Prithvi Shaw, R Samarth, Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Hanuma Vihari, Ankit Bawne, KS Bharat (wk), Axar Patel (1st four-day game)/Shahbaz Nadeem (2nd four-day game), Yuzvendra Chahal, Jayant Yadav, Rajneesh Gurbani, Navdeep Saini, Ankit Rajpoot, Mohammed Siraj.
For Quadrangular series
India A: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Prithvi Shaw, R Samarth, Suryakumar Yadav, Hanuma Vihari, Nitish Rana, Siddhesh Lad, Sanju Samson (wk), Mayank Markande, K Gowtham, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Siraj, Shivam Mavi, Khaleel Ahmed.
India B: Manish Pandey (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubhman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Ricky Bhui, Vijay Shankar, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Gopal, Jayant Yadav, Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Siddarth Kaul, Prasidh Krishna, Kulwant Khejroliya, Navdeep Saini.
For Duleep Trophy:
India Blue: Faiz Fazal (capt), Abhishek Raman, Anmolpreet Singh, Ganesh Satish, N. Gangta, Dhruv Shorey, KS Bharat (wk), Akshay Wakhare, Saurav Kumar, Swapnil Singh, Basil Thampi, B Ayappa, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni.
India Red: Abhinav Mukund (capt), RR Sanjay, Ashutosh Singh, B Aparajith, Writtick Chatterjee, B Sandeep, Akshay Wadkar (wk), Shahbaz Nadeem, Mihir Hirwani, Parvez Rasool, Rajnees Gurbani, Abhimanyu Mithun, Ishan Porel, Y Prithvi Raj.
India Green: Parthiv Patel (capt & wk), Prashant Chopra, Priyank Panchal, Sudeep Chatterjee, Gurkeerat Mann, B Indrajit, VP Solanki, Jajal Saxena, Karn Sharma, Vikas Mishra, K Vignesh, Ankit Rajpoot, Ashok Dinda, Atith Sheth.