The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had announced the Test squad for the two-match Test series against New Zealand on November 12. The exclusion of the lower-middle order batter, Hanuma Vihari shocked everyone as his role was crucial in India's famous draw at Sydney Cricket Ground earlier this year. Vihari showed grit and solid technique despite excruciating pain to salvage a draw with partnerships with Rishabh Pant and Ravichandran Ashwin. However, according to a few reports, the right-handed batter is excluded from the side to tour South Africa and gain experience with India A squad.
“One must remember Dravid had advocated for shadow ‘A’ tours before every big away tour. Anyway, a larger squad will be there in South Africa. This allows Vihari and Prithvi to get used to the conditions and if they do well, they will be inducted into the Test team in South Africa," a source had told TOI.
“Anyway, India never needed specialist batters till No. 7 in India. Ravindra Jadeja can bat up the order and R Ashwin too has been good on Indian pitches,” he had added.
The Test specialist Vihari will now travel to South Africa with India A squad under the captaincy of Priyank Panchal for the four-day matches from November 23 to December 9 in Bloemfontein while India play against New Zealand in two-Test series at home.
India Test Squad: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Cheteshwar Pujara (VC), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Srikar Bharat (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
India A squad: Priyank Panchal (C), Prithvi Shaw, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Baba Aprajith, Upendra Yadav (WK), K Gowtham, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Umran Malik, Ishan Porel, Arzan Nagaswalla, Hanuma Vihari
