After announcing his retirement from the captaincy post in limited-overs cricket on Thursday, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is set to lead India-A side in first of the two practice matches against England, which starts on January 10th.
Ajinkya Rahane, however, will lead India-A in the second practice match, which starts on January 10th in Mumbai.
MSK Prasad led selection panel went for a different squad altogether for both the practice matches, picking 22 different players for the two games.
In the first match, likes of Mandeep Singh, Sanju Samson, Siddharth Kaul and Mohit Sharma makes it to the 12-member squad, while southpaw Yuvraj Singh returns to warm-up his reflexes before the start of the One-Day series. Left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav also finds a place the line-up.
Ind A team for 1st warm-up tie: Shikhar, Mandeep, Rayudu, Yuvraj, Dhoni (capt), Pandya, Samson, Kuldeep, Chahal, Nehra, Mohit Sharma, S Kaul
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 6, 2017
The second practice match in Mumbai will see the local boy, as both games are in Mumbai, Ajinkya Rahane getting the baton, which also sees quite a number of young faces like Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant and Sheldon Jackson making their way into the side. India’s World Cup winning batsman Suresh Raina will also be the part of the team. For seamers, Vinay Kumar and Ashoke Dinda were included in the squad too.
Ind A team for 2nd warm-up tie: R Pant, A Rahane (capt), Raina, Hooda, Kishan, S Jackson, V Shankar, Nadeem, Rasool, V Kumar, Sangwan, Dinda
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 6, 2017
England’s ODI and T20I series against India will start on January 15th at Pune.