Krunal Pandya, Basil Thampi Earn Maiden India 'A' Call-Up, Manish Pandey To Lead

Manish Pandey, who missed the chance to go to England for the ICC Champions Trophy owing to an injury, has been given a chance to get back into mix of things after being named the captain of India ‘A’ for the one-day tri-series involving Australia ‘A’ and hosts South Africa ‘A’. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, on Thursday (June 29), announced the teams for the tri-nation series and the subsequent four-day matches against South Africa.

Karun Nair, who had scored a historic triple century against England last year, has been included in both the squads and has also been given the responsibility of leading the team in the four-day matches..

Indian Premier League performers rewarded:

The selectors had not considered the players for the Champions Trophy on the basis of their performance in this year’s Indian Premier League but duly rewarded them with a place in the India ‘A’ squad.

Hyderabad’s highly-rated fast-bowler, Mohammed Mohammed Siraj, who impressed both in IPL as well as Ranji Trophy, has been named in both the squads. Siraj was Hyderabad’s highest wicket-taker in their run to the quarter-final with 41 scalps and replicated his impressive performance in the IPL too, picking up 10 wickets in just 6 matches in his debut season.

Mumbai Indians’ Krunal Pandya and Gujarat Lions Basil Thampi have also got their maiden calls for India A after impressing in the IPL. Both the players have been included in the one-day squad.

Thampi was Lions’ second highest wicket-taker with 11 scalps to his name and had caught everyone’s attention with his ability to fire-in yorkers at will. On the other hand, Pandya replicated his last season’s heroics with brilliant allround show. The allrounder finished with 243 runs at 34.71 in addition to picking up 10 wickets and an economy rate of under seven to play an integral role in Mumbai’s march to the title.

Hanuma Vihari, Sudip Chatterjee and seamers Ankit Rajpoot have also got their maiden India ‘A’ calls for impressive performances in domestic tournament. The trio have been included in the squad for the four-day games.

Squads:

Tri-nation One-Day Series: Mandeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Manish Pandey (c), Deepak Hooda, Karun Nair, Krunal Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), Vijay Shankar, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jayant Yadav, Basil Thampi, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Siddarth Kaul.

Four-day games: PK Panchal, Abhinav Mukund, Shreyas Iyer, Ankit Bawne, Karun Nair (c), Sudip Chatterjee, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hanuma Vihari, Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Aniket Choudhary, Ankit Rajpoot.