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Fit-again Rishabh Pant to lead India A vs South Africa A, Sarfaraz Khan misses out
Rishabh Pant returns to cricket as captain of India A for two matches against South Africa A after recovering from a foot fracture.
Mumbai: Rishabh Pant will make a much-awaited return to competitive cricket at the month end. He was named skipper on Tuesday of India A that will play two four-day matches against a touring South Africa side having fully recovered from a foot fracture suffered during the fourth Test in England.
Pant, named vice-captain for the England series in June-July, was in imperious form with two centuries and three fifties before suffering the injury in the Manchester Test. He was struck on his right foot by a full delivery from Chris Woakes in the first innings. Though he braved the pain and came back to bat, scans revealed the fracture, putting him out of action since then. He missed the T20 Asia Cup and the two-match home Test series against West Indies.
Pant will get valuable game time ahead of the two-match home Test series against South Africa, beginning in Kolkata on November 14.
India A will play both the South Africa A games at BCCI’s Center of Excellence, Bengaluru (Oct 30-Nov 2 and Nov 6-Nov9).
Young left-handed batter Sai Sudharsan of Tamil Nadu has been named vice-captain. Test stars K L Rahul and Mohammed Siraj have been picked for the second game. Devdutt Padikkal, wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel and pacer Prasidh Krishna are the other prominent names included.
Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan, however, is a surprise omission. The middle-order batter will have reasons to be disappointed.
In the home series against New Zealand late last year, Sarfaraz hit a 150 in tough conditions in the opening Test at Bengaluru. His performances tampered off in the second and third Tests as India suffered a whitewash. He was part of the squad that toured Australia, but did not get to play.
In six Tests, he has scored 371 runs with one century and three half-centuries.
Ignored for the England Tests, Sarfaraz has worked on his fitness and trimmed down, fulfilling the fitness parameters laid down by BCCI. He played in India A’s first game on the tour of England before the Test series, impressing with a fine 92 against England Lions.
Steady domestic performers from Central Zone – Rajat Patidar(1st game), Harsh Dubey (both games), Yash Thakur (1st game) and Sarnash Jain (1st game) – have been rewarded for their impressive show in the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Cup.
Patidar has begun the new season with two hundreds in Duleep games followed by an unbeaten double century last week in the Ranji opener. Dubey was Ranji Trophy’s highest wicket-taker with 69 wickets last season and Jain was the Duleep Trophy Player-of-the-Tournament.
India Under-19 batter Ayush Mhatre is in the squad for the first game while Abhimanyu Easwaran is included for the second.
Squad for 1st match: Rishabh Pant (c) (wk), Ayush Mhatre, N Jagdeesan (wk), Sai Sudharsan (vc), Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Harsh Dubey, Tanush Kotian, Manav Suthar, Khaleel Ahmed, Gurnoor Brar, Anshul Kamboj, Yash Thakur, Ayush Badoni, Saransh Jain.
Squad for 2nd match: Rishabh Pant (c) (wk), KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Sai Sudharsan (vc), Devdutt Padikkal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Harsh Dubey, Tanush Kotian, Manav Suthar, Khaleel Ahmed, Gurnoor Brar, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep.
