“NZ Match-Time Will Help Ahead of Australia Tour”

India A has left to New Zealand for a month-long tour during where they will play 3 unofficial Test matches and the same number of one-day games against New Zealand A. The tour starts with the unofficial Test series from November 16 and will end on December 11 2018 with the third and final one-day game.

Before leaving to New Zealand, India A head coach Rahul Dravid spoke about the team and the importance of shadow tours before overseas commitments. He is pretty excited about going to New Zealand for another tour and is expecting a good challenge from both the teams.

“It is exciting to be travelling to New Zealand with the India A team again. It is one of those countries where the conditions are a lot different from what our boys are used to back home. It is going to be a really good challenge,” said Rahul Dravid regarding India A’s upcoming tour of New Zealand.

India usually travels with talented youngsters on such tours, but this time it is a little different with India’s tour of Australia on the cards. Ajinkya Rahane will lead India ‘A’ in the 1st unofficial Test match against New Zealand A while Karun Nair has been appointed captain for the remaining two unofficial Tests.

“This time we have taken a slightly more senior team. It will help us with the tour coming up in Australia later on in the season and also the fact that we travel to New Zealand next year,” Dravid said, referring to the seniors in the 4-day game squad.

“It is really nice to be able to hold such tours just before the Indian team visits these countries. We are trying to achieve that with the A team programme. We are trying to have shadow tours. We did it in England and we could obviously not do it in Australia, but it is great to go to New Zealand instead,” said Rahul Dravid.

The 3 unofficial Test matches between New Zealand A and India A will be played in Mount Maunganui (Nov 16 – 19), in Hamilton (Nov 23 – 26) and in Whangarei (Nov 30 – Dec 03). The 3 one-day games will all be played at Mount Maunganui (Dec 07, Dec 09 and Dec 11) .

India A squad for first unofficial Test against New Zealand A:

Murali Vijay, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Parthiv Patel, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Rajneesh Gurbani, Vijay Shankar, Srikar Bharat

India A squad for 2nd and 3rd unofficial Tests against New Zealand A:

Karun Nair (c), Rajneesh Gurbani, Mayank Agarwal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ravikumar Samarth, Ankeet Bawne, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, Srikar Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar

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