England tour: Bengal opener Easwaran surprise choice as India A captain

Abhimanyu Easwaran, former Bengal captain and a prolific scorer in domestic cricket, once again emerged as a left-field candidate for the opener’s spot in the England series as he was named captain of a powerful India A squad on Friday. India will play two first-class matches against the England Lions at Canterbury and Northampton, while the tour will conclude with a match against Team India.

While the senior India squad will not be announced until next week, there has been a lot of speculation over the composition of the India A squad as it is expected to throw up clues about the selectors’ thinking on the high-profile Test series ahead. A fair bit of churn is expected in the squad for the five-Test series following the retirement of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma as well as senior spinner Ravi Ashwin earlier this year.

The call-up of Karun Nair to a national team set-up after a dream run in the last domestic season, experienced seaming allrounder Shardul Thakur, and Ishan Kishan as the second wicketkeeper in the 18-member India A squad holds a lot of significance. ‘’Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan will join the squad ahead of the second match,’’ the BCCI release added, which would be just in time after the IPL final on 3 June.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir, whose inputs behind the India A selections are palpable, is expected to fly out ahead of the rest of the squad to have a closer look at some of the hopefuls. The Test series opener is scheduled to take place at Headingley in Leeds from 20- 24 June and the four subsequent matches will be played in Birmingham, Lord’s, Manchester and The Oval, respectively.

Looking for options to replace Rohit Sharma, the names are skipper-to-be Gill, K.L. Rahul, and left-field choices like Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan. Rahul seems like the most sensible choice — given his experience playing as an opener in England, while the conundrum over the crucial no. 4 position to find a replacement for Kohli is yet to be sorted out.

India A squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel (VC) (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan (WK), Manav Suthar, Tanush Kotian, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sarfaraz Khan, Tushar Deshpande, Harsh Dubey.