Rishabh Pant and Ajinkya Rahane will get a chance to stake a claim for a place in India’s ODI squad after they were picked in the India A side which will take on England Lions in a five-match one-day series.
Rahane has been designated as the India A skipper for the first three one-dayers while Pant has been included in the squad for the fourth and fifth match.
Rahane has not featured in India’s ODI setup ever since the tour of South Africa at the start of 2018 but has a chance to work himself into contention for the World Cup squad with his call up for India A.
Rahane has not played an ODI since the start of 2018.
Pant, meanwhile, has made a bright start to his Test career but has found opportunities hard to come by in the ODI setup with MS Dhoni still going strong. The youngster was not included in the ODI squads for the ongoing tours of Australia and New Zealand.
Along with Rahane, all-rounder Krunal Pandya too has been called up for the first three one-dayers against England Lions.
The five one-day matches will be held at Thiruvananthapuram with the first clash taking place on January 23. The final match of the series will be held on January 31 before the action moves on to two unofficial Tests between the two sides at Wayanad.
India A squad for first three one-dayers
Ajinkya Rahane (c), Anmolpreet Singh, Rituraj Gaekwad, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Ankit Bawne, Ishan Kishan (wk), Krunal Pandya, Axar Patel, Mayank Markande, Jayant Yadav, Siddarth Kaul, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini
India A squad for fourth and fifth one-dayers
Ankit Bawne (c), Rituraj Gaekwad, Anmolpreet Singh, Ricky Bhui, Siddhesh Lad, Himmat Singh, Rishabh Pant (wk), Deepak Hooda, Axar Patel, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Avesh Khan, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur