India batter Karun Nair, Yashasvi Jaiswal and wicketkeeper batter to be part of the India A squad for the first unofficial Test against England Lions, which is scheduled to start on May 30.
As per the Indian Express, the national selection panel headed by Ajit Agarkar has picked a 14-member squad for the first match, including players whose involvement in the T20 league ended in the league stage.
Apart from Jaiswal, Nair and Kishan, other players are also expected to take the flight to UK by the end of this month, including Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Dhruv Jurel, Shardul Thakur, Tanush Kotian, Akash Deep, Khaleel Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj and Manav Suthar.
The report further added that Sarfaraz Khan, who is currently not a part of any IPL franchise, will not travel alongside the first batch of the India A squad; he will travel to England alongside the Test squad. Rajat Patidar, nursing a finger injury, is unlikely to make the cut for the England tour.
After the first ‘Test’, the plan is to send the likes of Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar for the second A fixture.
Team India are scheduled to play an intra-squad match as to prepare for the five-Test match series against England. The five-Test match series between India and England is scheduled to start from June 20. Team India will feature with new captain as Rohit Sharma has announced his retirement. There are reports that Shubman Gill will be India's new red-ball skipper and wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant will be his deputy. The BCCI will most likely to announce India's squad for the England series on May 16 or 17. This will be India's first red-ball assignment after a humiliating 3-1 defeat in Australia during the five-Test match series of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.