Wriddhiman Saha, Kuldeep Yadav and Umesh Yadav will slot back in with the India A squad following their tour of the Caribbean with the national side. Saha will lead in the second four-day fixture against South Africa A in Mysore, of which Umesh and Kuldeep are a part of.
Shubman Gill will lead in the first four-dayer starting September 10 in Wayanad, which comprises the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ammolpreet Singh, K Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem and Mohammed Siraj, all of whom were part of the India A squad that toured West Indies last month.
Vijay Shankar, who was ruled out of the ongoing one-day series because of a thumb injury, has also been included subject to clearance from the medical team. Ruturaj, interestingly, was part of only the limited-overs squad in West Indies and is currently part of the India A one-day team playing South Africa A in Thiruvananthapuram.
The selection committee picked two different squads as a number of India A regulars like Priyank Panchal and Abhimanyu Easwaran will be involved in the Duleep Trophy final in Bengaluru starting September 4.
Ishan Kishan, who is currently part of the India A one-day team, will rejoin India Red for the Duleep Trophy final, while Rahul Chahar will be replaced by Mayank Markande in the India Green side.
Kishan’s inclusion for the four-day format is perhaps a sign of the selectors perhaps satisfied with his white-ball credentials, and wanting to give him enough exposure to the red-ball format.
Meanwhile, Karun Nair was rewarded for his Duleep Trophy form with a return to the India A fold for the first time since November last year. Nair made scores of 99, 166 not out and 90 in his first two first-class outings this season. Nair is on a comeback trail of sorts after being controversially left out of the Indian Test squad midway through the England tour last year.
With South Africa due to tour India for a full tour, the four-dayers are seen as a shadow tour for a number of their Test aspirants like Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma, Theunis de Bruyn, Zubayr Hamza, Keshav Maharaj, Senuran Muthusamy and Anrich Nortje.
India A squad for 1st four-dayer: Shubman Gill (capt), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Anmolpreet Singh, Ricky Bhui, Ankeet Bawne, KS Bharat (wk), K Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Tushar Deshpande, Shivam Dube, Vijay Shankar
India A squad for 2nd four-dayer: Priyank Panchal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Anmolpreet Singh, Karun Nair, Wriddhiman Saha (Capt, wk), K Gowtham, Kuldeep Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Avesh Khan
Source: ESPN Crickinfo