Tiwary, Uthappa named ‘A’ team captains for Aus tour

Manoj Tiwary and Robin Uthappa have been named captains of India A’s four-day and one day squads, which will leave for a month-long tour of Australia to compete in first-class as well as limited overs matches.

While Tiwary will be skipper the side in the four day matches, Uthappa has been entrusted with the job of leading the side in the one day version. India will play two four-day matches against the James Faulkner-led Australia A in Queensland from July 6-9 and 13-16 respectively.

They will then play a quadrangular one day series involving Australia A, Australian High Performance Centre and South Africa A.

The team has all the players who have performed during the last domestic season as well as IPL-7.

The likes of K L Rahul, Karun Nair, Railways’ Anureet Singh, Services’ Rajat Paliwal have made it to the day’s team following good showings in Ranji Trophy while a few like Umesh Yadav, Amit Mishra will get a chance to showcase their skills before the five-match ODI series against England come calling.

Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha also gets a lifeline having been discarded from all formats in the senior team. Youngsters like Unmukt Chand, Akshar Patel, Manan Vohra, Rishi Dhawan have all been selected for the one day version.

The only surprise was Kedar Jadhav - Ranji Trophy’s highest scorer was not selected in the longer version after having scored 1223 runs this season.