KS Bharat to captain India A in South Africa

New Delhi: Andhra wicketkeeper-batter KS Bharat will lead India A in the two four-day matches against South Africa A which will coincide with the senior team's tour to the country later this month.

The BCCI on Thursday announced two separate squads for the two matches with Bharat, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Dhruv Jurel, Manav Suthar and Vidhwath Kaverappa included in both the four-day games.

Bengal top-order batter Easwaran's inclusion, however, is subject to fitness, the BCCI stated.

The 30-year-old Bharat last played for India in the World Test Championship final against Australia in June.

Karnataka's Devdutt Padikkal, who is the leading run-getter in the ongoing Vijay Hazare Trophy, has been included in the squad for the first match, which will be held in the build-up to the Boxing Day Test in Centurion.

Mumbai's Sarfaraz Khan, who has not been able to replicate his domestic performance at the international level, has also been named in the squad along with the likes of Prasidh Krishna, Tushar Deshpande for the first match, which is scheduled to be played from December 11 to 14.

Tilak Varma, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel and Navdeep Saini have been drafted for the second A game, scheduled from December 26 to 29.

The second four-day game will be held in the lead up to the second and final Test in Cape Town from January 3 to 7.

The BCCI has also named one inter-squad for a three-day match slated for December 20 to 22.

Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who will miss the white-ball series against South Africa, have been named in the squad.

The likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer are also part of the squad.

However, the BCCI has not name a captain for the inter-squad three-day match.

Squads: India A squad for the 1st four-day match: KS Bharat (C, wk), Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Devdutt Padikkal, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Shardul Thakur, Pulkit Narang, Sourabh Kumar, Manav Suthar, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa and Tushar Deshpande.

India A squad for 2nd four-day match: KS Bharat (C, wk), Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Manav Suthar, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa and Navdeep Saini.

India Inter-squad three-day match: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran*, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Pradosh Ranjan Paul, KS Bharat (wk), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Pulkit Narang, Harshit Rana, Shardul Thakur, Sourabh Kumar, Manav Suthar, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini.