Abhimanyu Easwaran to Captain India A on England Tour; Gill and Sudharsan Join for Second Match

Abhimanyu Easwaran to Captain India A on England Tour: On Friday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the India A squad for their upcoming tour of England. The India A team will play two first-class matches against the England Lions at Canterbury and Northampton and one match against Team India (Senior Men). Abhimanyu Easwaran will be the captain of the squad while Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan will be joining the squad before the second game.

Dhruv Jurel will be Easwaran's deputy for the tour, which officially commences on May 30. India A will face England over two games. The first match commences on May 30 in Canterbury with the second match on June 6 in Northampton.

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It should be mentioned that Abhimanyu Easwaran was in India's squad during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy but did not play a single game.

India A will play the Senior Men's team in an intra-squad England game on June 13 in Beckenham. This is taking place a week before the five-Test match series between India and England in Leeds.

It should be noted that Shubman Gill is favourite to be the next India captain. It should also be noted that the announcement will made next week in Mumbai.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, who is popular to open the batting for India in the five-match Test series in England, has also been picked in the India A squad for the games against England Lions. Karun Nair, who scored plenty of runs in domestic cricket last year, was also included in the A squad.

The other members of the 18-man squad are Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan, Dhruv Jurel, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Akash Deep.

India head coach Gautam Gambhir reportedly arrived in Mumbai on Thursday and the former India open batter was expected to meet chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar. It has to be noted that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma recently announced their retirements from Tests.

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Sarfaraz Khan, who was not picked for a single game in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, especially after scoring 150 against New Zealand in the Bengaluru Test, has also been chosen in the squad. The batter would want to put his head down and make the most of the opportunities to enhance his chances of making it to the main squad.

Sarfaraz Khan hurt his ribs while practicing for the series with Australia and thus missed the Ranji Trophy game with Jammu and Kashmir as well. He has completely recovered and is expected to join and begin the series against India A.

Vidarbha spinner Harsh Dubey, who was the leading wicket taker in the Ranji Trophy 2024-25 squad also received first call-up into the India A squad.

India A squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel (VC) (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan (WK), Manav Suthar, Tanush Kotian, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sarfaraz Khan, Tushar Deshpande, Harsh Dubey.

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