The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced a strong India A squad for the upcoming unofficial Test series against New Zealand A, with a few players from the senior Test and limited-overs groups included in the 15-member squad. In the squad, senior-team vice-captain KL Rahul, promising opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and No. 3 batter Devdutt Padikkal have been included for the three-match series, which begins on October 24 in New Zealand.
Meanwhile, the India A fixtures overlap with India's ODI commitments against New Zealand, making it unlikely for some of the senior players to feature in the entire unofficial Test series. The opening India A Test is scheduled to be played from October 24 to 28 at Lincoln. The second match will take place in Christchurch between October 31 and November 3.
And the final game will be held at Lincoln from November 7 to 10. India's senior ODI team, on the other hand, is due to play three matches against New Zealand on November 4, 7 and 10. KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Washington Sundar are part of India's ODI plans, and they will be unlikely to be able to remain with the A team throughout the three matches. The squad also includes notable names in Anshul Kamboj, Akash Deep and Mukesh Kumar who have all already represented India in Test cricket. Rishabh Pant is in the squad, but his participation is subject to fitness.
India A squad for tour of New Zealand: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravichandran Smaran, Rishabh Pant (wk)*, Dhruv Jurel (capt, wk), Washington Sundar, Auqib Nabi, Akash Deep, Anshul Kamboj, Manav Suthar, Mukesh Choudhary, Sai Sudharsan, Yash Rathod, Mukesh Kumar