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Ruturaj Gaikwad in new role for India: The India National Cricket Team will be facing the Afghanistan National Cricket Team for a one-off Test and an ODI series. However, the India A side will be travelling for the tri-series in Sri Lanka. Ahead of the series, there has been an injury replacement on the Men in Blue side as Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag, who was added, has been out injured.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Ruturaj Gaikwad has been added as the replacement. He replaces vice-captain Riyan Parag, who has been ruled out of the series due to a hamstring injury. The latter will be doing his rehabilitation and will be managed by the BCCI Centre of Excellence (CoE). This is a good opportunity for the CSK captain ahead of the 2027 World Cup.
Ruturaj Gaikwad in new role for India A
Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has not been added to the main squad despite his good performance in the last series vs South Africa, where he played a key role in the No.4 position in the absence of Shreyas Iyer, was dropped after that in the following series against New Zealand. He will be the vice-captain in the India A side.
Ruturaj, who did not have the best of IPL, will look to come back in form, especially keeping in mind the ODI World Cup next year in South Africa, as he might get a chance as a back-up to Shreyas Iyer, with experience playing in that position earlier, and will look to force the selectors to look at him incase he makes a good performance in the upcoming series.
Gaikwad continues to knock on the door of senior India team
Ruturaj Gaikwad’s recent performance for the Men in Blue side has been decent in 9 matches played in the 50-over format; he has scored 228 runs with one century and one half-century. But has an excellent list A career with over 5000 runs and an average of 58.83, scoring 20 hundreds and 19 half centuries.
He was also the captain of the India side that won the Asian Games gold medal in Hangzhou, China, back in 2023. Gaikwad just needs a touch and one innings to make a comeback in his best of form, and this Sri Lanka tri-series will be key for him to return to form. Gaikwad will also be responsible for helping the new young captain, Tilak Varma, in the series.
India A side have new faces
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, the boy wonder, made the headlines during the IPL 2026, as he had a stellar IPL season, scoring 776 runs with a strike rate of over 200. Apart from the Southpaw Anukul Roy, who had a fantastic domestic season and a good season with KKR in IPL, has replaced Harsh Dubey.
The tri-series will include India A, Sri Lanka A, and Afghanistan A. The white-ball matches will take place at Dambulla before the tour continues to Galle for two multi-day matches versus Sri Lanka A. The squads for the red-ball games will be revealed separately.
Updated India A squad for tri-series: Tilak Varma (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Priyansh Arya, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Suryansh Shedge, Prabhsimran Singh (WK), Kumar Kushagra (WK), Vipraj Nigam, Yash Thakur, Yudhvir Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Arshad Khan, Anukul Roy
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