BCCI announces India A squad for Australia tour

New Delhi: Wicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha was on Saturday named captain of the India A team, which will take part in the two unofficial 'Tests' and a four-nation One-day tournament, in Australia, starting August 14. Ojha had a memorable Australia tour with India A team in 2014 when he had struck a double hundred and a hundred in a four-day match. Most of the players, who were in the Indian squad during the recent Zimbabwe tour, have been included in the 15-man squad. As many as nine players from the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led squad are part of the 'A' team. Ranji Trophy's highest run scorer Shreyas Iyer, who was ingnored for the West Indies tour, is also part of the squad along with Kedar Jadhav, Axar Patel, Barinder Sran and Dhawal Kulkarni. It will be first overseas outing for Mumbai southpaw Akhil Herwadkar with the India A team. The tour will begin with a match against Australia A in the four-team One-day event opener on August 14. The other two teams being South Africa A and National Performance Squad. The two Test matches against Australia A are scheduled for September 8 to 11 and September 15 to 18 in Brisbane. India A Squad Naman Ojha (C), Faiz Fazal, Akhil Herwadkar, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Barinder Sran, Shahbaz Nadeem and Sanju Samson.