Abhimanyu Easwaran to Lead as BCCI Announces India A Squad For England Lions Matches at Home

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced a 13-member India A squad for the four-day match against visiting England Lions which will be preceded by a warm-up fixture. The two teams will face each other in a two-day warm-up match in Ahmedabad on January 12-13, followed by the four-day match at the Narendra Modi Stadium from January 17-20.

The selection committee has picked Bengal’s star batter Abhimanyu Easwaran as the India A skipper for the matches.

Easwaran had a great run in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy this season as he was Bengal’s highest run-getter with 248 runs at a stunning rate of 155.

After his exploits in SMAT, he continued his fine form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy by accumulating 272 runs in just four matches at an average of 90.66 and a strike rate of 91.27.

He was also part of India’s squad for the South Africa Test series. Ruturaj Gaikwad was ruled out of South Africa due to injury. The selection committee has named Abhimanyu Easwaran as his replacement for the 2 Tests, starting December 26 in Centurion.

Sai Sudharsan and Rajat Patidar, who recently made their white-ball debuts for India on the South Africa tour, also got picked in the squad. Meanwhile, Navdeep Saini also got selected in the 13-member squad.

India A are coming off a tour of South Africa, where they played a couple of unofficial Test matches, with both ending in draws.

Bharat was named the skipper for the series in South Africa, and Easwaran too was part of the squad.

Easwaran featured in only a game, managing 18 runs, while Bharat got only six runs.

Pradosh Ranjan Paul, who is a part of the unit for the England Lions series, will be one of the players to watch out for as he was the highest run-scorer for his side in South Africa, making 163 runs in the opening unofficial Test.

India A squad versus England Lions: Abhimanyu Easwaran (Captain), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, KS Bharat (WK), Manav Suthar, Pulkit Narang, Navdeep Saini, Tushar Deshpande, Vidwath Kaverappa, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Akash Deep