The Board of Control for Cricket in India's selection committee led by Ajit Agarkar named the India-A squad for the upcoming tour of Australia. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Abhimanyu Easwaran have been named as the captain and vice-captain of the team with them in the race to be named as back-up openers for India's squad in the 2024-25 Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT).
It is worth noting that players from either India's Test or T20I squad are not eligible for selection as the tour clashes with the third Test against New Zealand as well as the four-match T20I series against South Africa.
India-A and Australia-A will play two four-day first-class matches against each other starting October 31 (Mackay Cricket Ground) and November 7 (Melbourne Cricket Ground). Later, the India-A squad will face the senior Indian team led by Rohit Sharma in a three-day match (November 15-17) at the WACA Stadium in Perth in preparation for the 1st Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) from November 22 at the Optus Stadium in the same city.
The Big Selection Calls
Nitish Kumar Reddy is the biggest surprise name in the squad as he was part of the three-match T20I series against Bangladesh where he impressed and even won the Player of the Match (POTM) award in the second game. His inclusion certainly rules him out of the trip to South Africa but points towards a call-up for him to the senior team for the five-match Test series against Australia as India search for a pace-bowling all-rounder in red-ball cricket.
Ishan Kishan, Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, and Devdutt Padikkal are the only players in the squad, who have played Test cricket for India. While Kishan has found a way back in the scheme of things in red-ball cricket for India, there was no place for Shreyas Iyer despite him emerging as the team's mainstay in the middle order less than a year ago before he was tripped of his BCCI central contract.
India A Squad for Australia Tour: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Abhimanyu Easwaran (VC), Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Baba Indrajith, Ishan Kishan (WK), Abishek Porel (WK), Mukesh Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal, Navdeep Saini, Manav Suthar, Tanush Kotian