Shikhar Dhawan and Unmukt Chand will skipper the India A squad in the three-day match and One-Day matches respectively against Bangladesh A later this month. Bangladesh had named a strong squad for the tour and now the BCCI has followed suit naming the squads which also include internationals like Varun Aaron, Suresh Raina, and Ravindra Jadeja.
The series will provide an opportunity for Dhawan to gain some match practice after he missed the last two Tests against Sri Lanka in the series which India won 2-1. Dhawan scored a brilliant century in the opening Test at the Galle only to end up on the losing side as the visitors suffered a dramatic batting collapse at the hands of the Sri Lankan spinners.
Harbhajan Singh, who failed to impress during the Galle Test could find his chances for the senior team hard to come by now with promising spinners like Kuldeep Yadav and Jayant Yadav included in the squad along with Jadeja and leg-spinner Karn Sharma.
Jayant has been included in both squads and the only other player to share that distinction is Karnataka batsman Karun Nair. The 23-year-old will have the best chance to impress as he will also turn out for his state side in a three-day game against the visitors.
Naman Ojha, who made his Test debut in the third Test match against Sri Lanka has been named in the three-day squad while Sanju Samson was named in the one-day squad. The Kerala lad will join the likes of Kedar Jadhav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Manish Pandey and Raina who all played for the senior team in the ODI series against Zimbabwe.
Bangladesh A kick-off their tour with the three one-dayers to be played on September 16, 18 and 20 before taking on India’s domestic treble champions Karnataka in a three-day game from September 22. The tour closes off with the three-day match against India A from September 27 to 29. The match between Karnataka and Bangladesh A will be played at Mysore while all the other matches will be played at Bangalore.
Three-day squad: Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Abhinav Mukund, Karun Nair, Shreyas Iyer, Baba Aparajith, Naman Ojha, Jayant Yadav, Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Gopal, Abhimanyu Mithun, Varun Aaron, Ishwar Pandey, Sheldon Jackson
One-day squad: Unmukt Chand (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, Sanju Samson, Karun Nair, Kuldeep Yadav, Jayant Yadav, Karn Sharma, Rishi Dhawan, S Aravind, Dhawal Kulkarni, Rush Kalaria, Gurkeerat Singh Mann
