Leg-spinner Chahal named in India ‘A’ against South Africa

With an aim to prepare Yuzvendra Chahal for the Test format, the selectors today named the leg-spinner in the India ‘A’ team for the two four-day matches against South Africa ‘A’, starting August 4. The selection committee meeting was held in Kolkata.

Chahal, who has been an automatic choice in the limited overs format has not played any first-class cricket since December 2016 (for Haryana in Ranji Trophy), but the Indian team management and especially skipper Virat Kohli has indicated that he wants the wiry leg-spinner for five-day matches also.

The first of the two games will be played in Belgaum (August 4-7) followed by the second in Bengaluru (August 10-13).

It is widely believed that Chahal is being kept matchready as the selectors have named senior squad for only three Test matches.

“The current team management want wrist spinners in their squad. Kuldeep-Chahal combination has worked pretty well in the limited overs. However, Chahal has not played too many firstclass matches (27 games, 70 wickets).

“This is an ideal opportunity to test him. Even if he is not picked for last two Tests against England, selectors might try him against West Indies at home,” a source close to the selection committee said.

There is a school of thought that Ravindra Jadeja will be slowly eased out of the longer version if Chahal is able to show his skills in the four-day games. The talented Sanju Samson has been reinstated in the ‘A’ team having passed the Yo-Yo test.

The four-day team will be led by Shreyas Iyer. Left-arm spinners, Axar Patel will play the first game while Shahbaz Nadeem will replace him in the second. The four pacers -- Rajneesh Gurbani, Mohammed Siraj, Ankit Rajpoot and Navdeep Saini are also there in the team.

The batting line-up comprises Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari -all of whom enjoyed success in England. For the quadrangular One Day series involving South Africa ‘A’ and Australia ‘A’, Shreyas and Manish Pandey have been named captains of India ‘A’ and ‘B’ respectively.