Tiwary, Uthappa to captain India A in Australia

Manoj Tiwary and Robin Uthappa will lead the two India A sides on their tour to Australia this July where they play two four-day matches against Australia A before participating in a quadrangular one-day tournament. South Africa A and Cricket Australia's National Performance Squad will join the two teams in the quadrangular.

Tiwary, who didn't play a first-class game in the domestic season, will be the captain for the four-day side, and while he will stay back for the one-dayers he will hand over the captaincy to Uthappa, who has forced his way back into the national side with a stupendous IPL season. Uthappa has been picked for the four-day matches too, along with his Ranji-, Irani- and Vijay Hazare-winning Karnataka team-mates Karun Nair and KL Rahul.

However, none of the Karnataka bowlers has made it to either of the sides. Test hopefuls Umesh Yadav, Pragyan Ojha and Amit Mishra are the big names in the four-day squad. In the quadrangular series, Mohit Sharma, Akshar Patel and Karn Sharma will try to stake a claim for England ODIs.

The quadrangular series, ending on August 2, will be more important in terms of selection because India are due to play a five-ODI series in England later that month. This is also the time when India will start locking in on a combination for the World Cup in Australia early next year.

The A tour will begin with the four-day games in Brisbane, scheduled to start on July 6 and July 13. The team will then play two round-robin stages in the quadrangular, scheduled to start on July 20, before the final on August 2.

The tour will be the first major series for India A in 2014. In 2013, the team had toured South Africa in August, and apart from the four-day games they also participated in a tri-series that also involved Australia A. India A then hosted New Zealand A and West Indies A for first-class and limited-overs matches in September.

Squad for four-day matches Manoj Tiwary (capt.), KL Rahul, Jiwanjot Singh, Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Karun Nair, Naman Ojha, Pragyan Ojha, Umesh Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Anureet Singh, Rajat Paliwal, Amit Mishra, Sandeep Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, B Aparajith

Squad for quadrangular series Robin Uthappa (capt.), Unmukt Chand, Manish Pandey, Ambati Rayudu, Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Sanju Samson, Parvez Rasool, Akshar Patel, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rishi Dhawan, Mohit Sharma, Karn Sharma, Rahul Shukla, Manan Vohra, Jaydev Unadkat