KS Bharat to captain India ‘A’; Sarfaraz, Padikkal & Sundar named in the squad

The BCCI have announced the India ‘A’ squad for the forthcoming shadow tour of South Africa and the squad will be led by KS Bharat, who has been axed from the senior Test squad. Bharat featured in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final against Australia and was part of the Indian squad for the two-Test series against West Indies, but the 30-year-old has now been relegated to the ‘A’ team. 

READ: Senior squad (T20Is, ODIs and Tests) for South Africa tour

Bharat will captain a strong contingent of players who will be playing two unofficial Tests against South Africa ‘A’, and an Inter-Squad three-day game against the senior Test side.

Young top-order batters Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal have both been picked in the India ‘A’ side for the first unofficial Test, as has Abhimanyu Easwaran. 

Sarfaraz Khan has had a rough few months outside Ranji Trophy but the 26-year-old has also been included. In terms of batters, Tamil Nadu’s Pradosh Ranjan Paul is a bolter that’s been picked in the India ‘A’ squad for the first four-day game. 

In terms of the bowlers, Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur are the two senior bowlers who have been picked. India ‘A’ regular Sourabh Kumar has also been picked, while Manav Suthar has also made his way into the squad. Karnataka’s Vidwath Kaverappa & Mumbai’s Tushar Deshpande have also been picked for the first unofficial Test.

Several other seniors have been picked for the second unofficial Test, including Washington Sundar, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav. On the batting side, Ruturaj Gaikwad, who is a part of the senior side, has been picked for the second four-day game. Dhruv Jurel, meanwhile, has been picked for both the four-day games.

The shadow tour will kick-off with the first four-day game, which will commence on December 11th. 

India A squad for the 1st four-day match

Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Devdutt Padikkal, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Sarfaraz Khan, KS Bharat (C)(wk), Dhruv Jurel, Shardul Thakur, Pulkit Narang, Sourabh Kumar, Manav Suthar, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Tushar Deshpande.  

India A squad for 3rd four-day match

Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, KS Bharat (C)(wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Navdeep Saini.

India Inter-squad three-day match

Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Pulkit Narang, Harshit Rana, Shardul Thakur, Sourabh Kumar, Manav Suthar, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini.