New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) Right-handed batter Karun Nair has made a return to the national reckoning after being included in the Abhimanyu Easwaran-led India ‘A’ squad for the upcoming tour of England, starting on May 30.

India A are scheduled to play two games against England Lions (May 30-June 2 in Canterbury and June 6-9 in Northampton) and one intra-squad match against the senior India Test squad (June 13-16 in Beckenham).

While announcing the 18-man squad, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) added that Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan will join the India ‘A’ squad ahead of the second match against England Lions, once IPL 2025 concludes on June 3.

Nair, who scored a triple hundred against England in Chennai in December 2016, scored 863 runs at an average of 53.93 in Vidarbha’s Ranji Trophy winning 2024/25 season and became the fourth-highest run-getter of the tournament.

He also featured for Northamptonshire in the Division 1 County Championships over the last two seasons – In 14 innings, he scored 736 runs at an average of 56.61, including hitting two centuries and highest score of 202 not out.

The performances of Nair and Easwaran will be of huge interest to the Indian team management and the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee, as they look to fill the huge gaps in the batting order after the retirements of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

Other Test players included in the India ‘A’ squad are Dhruv Jurel, who’s appointed as the vice-captain of the team, as well as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan, Mukesh Kumar, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana, and Sarfaraz Khan, who was out of action after picking a rib injury on the 2024/25 tour of Australia.

Uncapped players like Manav Suthar, Tanush Kotian, Anshul Kamboj, Tushar Deshpande, and Harsh Dubey – the leading wicket-taker and Player of the Tournament in 2024/25 Ranji Trophy – also find places. Khaleel Ahmed and Ruturaj Gaikwad, who have played white-ball games for India, are also included in the touring party to England.

IANS understands that the selection of India ‘A’ squad has not been an easy task for Agarkar & Co, especially due to IPL 2025 being paused for a week and then revised schedule coming out on Monday.

“There was a lot of chaos and hence, the BCCI advised selectors to pick the squad with those players whose teams are or highly likely to be out of contention for the IPL 2025 playoffs. The India ‘A’ players named in the squad are likely to leave for England on May 25,” said a source aware of developments to IANS.

India A squad for England tour:- 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

–IANS

nr/