Pandey, Nair to lead India A sides in South Africa

Promising batsman Manish Pandey will lead India A for the one-day tri-series against hosts South Africa A and Australia A while Karun Nair was named captain for the two four-day games against the junior Proteas side, the BCCI announced on Thursday.

Impressive performances in the 2017 Indian Premier League (IPL) have helped all-rounder Krunal Pandya and medium pacer Basil Thampi earn their maiden call-ups to the Rahul Dravid-coached India A side. Both players have been included in the 16-man one-day squad.

The tri-series will be played from July 26, with India A taking on Australia A at Groenkloof in the opener before South Africa A face India A on July 28 at Tukkies.

The third game will feature Australia A and South Africa A on July 30 at Groenkloof while the fourth match will have India A taking on Australia A at Tukkies.

Groenkloof will host the fifth and sixth matches between South Africa A and India A on August 3 and the hosts versus Australians on August 5,respectively.

The final of the tri-series will be hosted at Tukkies on August 8, followed by the two four-day games between India A and South Africa A from August 12-15 at Benoni and August 19-22 at the Senwes Park respectively.

Squads:

One-day Tri-series: Mandeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Manish Pandey (Captain), 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 matches: Priyank Panchal, Abhinav Mukund, Shreyas Iyer, Ankit Bawne, Karun Nair (Captain), Sudip Chatterjee, Ishan Kishan (WK), Hanuma Vihari, Jayant Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Aniket Choudhary, Ankit Rajpoot.

--IANS

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