India A tour of NZ: Rahane, Rohit to play 4-day game, Hardik picked for one-days

A plethora of cricketers have been named in the three teams for the New Zealand tour

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday announced three India A squads for the tour of New Zealand alongside the tour of Australia. With Rahul Dravid as the coach, the Indian side will be playing three 4-day games followed by 3 one-day games against the Kiwis.

A plethora of cricketers have been named in the three teams for the New Zealand tour.

The first four-day match will witness Ajinkya Rahane captaining a star-studded India A side. Due to the no practice match ahead of the Test series against Australia, players like Rohit Sharma, Parthiv Patel, Murali Vijay and Rahane are likely to feature in the game to get accustomed to the weather and field conditions. Hanuma Vihari and Prithvi Shaw have also been added.

The rest of the 4-day games will be led by Karun Nair. Mayank Agarwal, who didn’t find a place in the Indian squad for the Aussie tour, will feature in the A team along with Shubman Gill Shahbaz Nadeem and Mohammed Siraj.

After the conclusion of longer format, both the teams will into a 3-match one-day rubber which could play serve as the screen test for India’s ODI squad for the three-match series against Australia. Manish Pandey will lead the India A in blues with Pandya brothers in the side.

It will be a great chance for Hardik to prove his fitness as he has been dropped from the T20I and Test series against Australia.

India A Squads vs New Zealand A

1st four-day game: Ajinkya Rahane (Captain), M Vijay, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Parthiv Patel (wicket-keeper), K Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Rajneesh Gurbani, Vijay Shankar, KS Bharat (wicket-keeper)

2nd and 3rd four-day game: Karun Nair (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, R Samarth, Ankit Bawne, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, KS Bharat (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), K Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Rajneesh Gurbani

Three one-day games: Manish Pandey (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Anmolpreet Singh, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Ankit Bawne, Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Krunal Pandya, Siddharth Kaul, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed