Shreyas Iyer was named the captain of India A by the BCCI on Saturday as the cricket board released the squad for the unofficial Tests against Australia A. India wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel has been named Iyer’s deputy.
Iyer is currently playing for West Zone in the Duleep Trophy 2025 semifinal match against Central Zone in Bengaluru. He was not selected for the India A team for two red-ball matches against the England Lions in May and June.
Other top players playing in the Duleep Trophy, who were named in the 15-member squad, include all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, top-order batsman Abhimanyu Easwaran, and Sai Sudharsan.
Narayan Jagadeesan, who was announced as Rishabh Pant's replacement in India's squad for the fifth Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, also made the cut. The wicketkeeper-batter had smashed 197 in the opening innings of South Zone's match against North Zone on Friday.
The official release by BCCI also mentioned: "KL Rahul and Mohammed Siraj will be added to the squad for the 2nd multi-day match and will replace two players in the squad after the 1st multi-day match."
Meanwhile, Rajat Patidar and Ruturaj Gaikwad were two notable absentees from the squad. Gaikwad smashed 184 runs leading West Zone against Central Zone in Bengaluru on Friday. Patidar, who is leading Central Zone, scored 77(84), which was after he hit 125 and 66 runs in the quarterfinal match played last week.
The Australian A squad will visit India next week to play three one-day matches and two four-day red-ball matches. The Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow will host the two unofficial Test matches, while the three unofficial ODIs will be played at Kanpur's Green Park Stadium. The series kickstarts from September 16 and the second match will commence on September 23. The three one-day games are scheduled to take place on September 30, October 3, and October 5.
Squad: Shreyas Iyer (c), Abhimanyu Easwaran, N Jagadeesan (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Dhruv Jurel (vc & wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Harsh Dubey, Ayush Badoni, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Tanush Kotian, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Khaleel Ahmed, Manav Suthar, Yash Thakur
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