The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) selectors have chosen two 13-member India ‘A’ squads for five unofficial One-Day matches against New Zealand ‘A’, scheduled to be played between October 6 and October 15 in Visakhapatnam.
Despite the fact that the decision looks smart as it will allow trying out a different set of players, but it will actually be taken because of helplessness of BCCI’s poor domestic scheduling.
India’s popular first-class tournament, Ranji Trophy clashes with the dates of ‘A’ series. Besides that, the selectors also had to pick Board President’s XI squad which play two warm-up matches in Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai against the senior New Zealand side on October 17 and 19. It simply means that the players which are named in the ‘A’ squad and warm-up matches, they would certainly have to miss the first two rounds of Ranji matches.
However, India ‘A’ and U-19 coach Rahul Dravid was unhappy with the state of affairs at all. According to the reports of TOI, a BCCI official said, “Dravid isn’t very comfortable with the idea of pulling players out of Ranji Trophy. He wants Ranji to be given as much importance. His ideas are kept in mind. The team was specifically picked keeping this in mind. The importance of Ranji Trophy performances can’t be ignored. As it is, there are fewer Ranji matches these days as teams have been divided into four groups.”
Mumbai batsman Shreyas Iyer will be leading the lead India ‘A’ and Board President’s XI teams since his state team isn’t featuring in the first round of Ranji Trophy.
India A team for first three One-Day matches:
Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Deepak Hooda, Shubman Gill, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Shahbaz Nadeem, Karn Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Siddarth Kaul, Mohammed Siraj, Basil Thampi.
India A team for last two One-Day games:
AR Easwaran, Prashant Chopra, Ankit Bawne, Shubman Gill, Baba Aparajith, Rishabh Pant (Captain & wk), Shahbaz Nadeem, Karn Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Shardul Thakur, Siddarth Kaul, Mohammed Siraj, Basil Thampi.
Board President XI team:
Prithvi Shaw, Shivam Chaudhary, Shreyas Iyer (Captain), Karun Nair, Gurkeerat Mann, Milind Kumar, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shahbaz Nadeem, Deepak Chahar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Avesh Khan.
