IND-A vs NZ-A 2022: Priyank Panchal named captain of India A squad for four-day matches against New Zealand A

Experienced Gujarat opening batter Priyank Panchal has been named captain of the India A team for the four-day matches against New Zealand A, which will begin in Bengaluru next month. Apart from Panchal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna and Umran Malik have also been included in the India A squad for the four-day games.

New Zealand A will take on India A in three four-day matches from September 1 to 18. The first and third match of the series will be played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The second game will be held at the KSCA Rajnagar Stadium in Hubli.

Panchal (32) has been a prolific scorer in first-class cricket and List A matches as well. While leading the India A team in the unofficial Test against South Africa A in Bloemfontein in November 2021, he scored a defiant 96 off 171 balls.

He replaced the injured Rohit Sharma in the Indian Test squad for the 2021-22 tour of South Africa. However, he did not get a chance as KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal did the opening duties.

Panchal has so far played 101 first-class games and has scored 7068 runs at an average of 45.30 with 24 hundreds and 26 fifties. In his List A career, he has 2854 runs to his name from 75 matches at an average of 40.19.

Among other members who are part of the India A squad for the series against New Zealand A, Sarfaraz and Patidar were the two leading run-getters in the Ranji Trophy 2022 season, amassing 982 and 658 runs respectively.

The two sides will also feature in three one-day matches from September 22 to 27. The squad for the white ball games, which will be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, will be announced later.

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India A squad for four-day matches against New Zealand

Priyank Panchal (Captain), Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraz Khan, Tilak Varma, KS Bharat (wk), Upendra Yadav (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Saurabh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar, Yash Dayal, Arzan Nagwaswalla