Image Credit- PTI
Against the visiting England Lions in Ahmedabad for
the last two four-day matches, Tilak Varma and Arshdeep Singh were selected for
the India A team. Rinku Singh, who has gained a lot of attention in T20
cricket, has been picked for the last four-day match and will be playing for
India A for the first time.
Rinku recently travelled to South Africa as a reserve
player with the India Test team. He has so far participated in 43 first-class
games and amassed 3099 runs at a 58.47 average. Although Rinku was only
included in the squad for the final four-day match, his UP colleague Yash Dayal
was included in the squads for the two remaining matches against the England
Lions.
As the backup keeper, Railways’ Upendra Yadav was
chosen over Jharkhand’s wicketkeeper-batter Kumar Kushagra. The two took the
places of KS Bharat and Dhruv Jurel, who will both go with the senior team to
Hyderabad and Vizag for the opening two Test matches against England.
The India A team will continue to be captained by
Bengal’s Abhimanyu Easwaran, who was the backup opener against South Africa but
was left off for the home Test match against England. Manav Suthar and Pulkit
Narang were left out of the squad for the next two games, however they are now
participating in the first four-day match against the England Lions.
For both matches, Washington Sundar was also called up
to the India A team. In the second game, Washington will be partnered with
Saurabh Kumar, another spinner who has been on the outside looking in for the
India Test team. Shams Mulani, a left-arm fingerspinner from Mumbai, will take
Saurabh’s position for the last game. Tushar Deshpande, his Mumbai teammate,
was included in the squad for both games.
Initially, Washington was going to join his state team
Tamil Nadu for their Ranji Trophy match in Coimbatore against Railways. The
match started two days after the Bengaluru Twenty20 International, in which he
finished with three wickets in his three overs. However, at the last minute,
his name was removed off the team to make room for his India A
responsibilities.