New Delhi, Oct 21 (PTI) Ishan Kishan returned to the national reckoning as he was on Monday named in a 15-member India A squad, to be led by Ruturaj Gaikwad, for the upcoming tour of Australia.

Fresh from his fine hundred against Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy, Maharashtra’s Gaikwad was named captain of the India A team.

India A will play two first-class matches against Australia A in Mackay and Melbourne and then take part in a three-day intra-squad game against the senior India team in Perth.

Apart from Gaikwad, the squad also includes other opening batters like Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan, as India will likely need to name a reserve opener in their Test squad for the upcoming tour of Australia, with captain Rohit Sharma set to miss one of the first two matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for personal reasons.

Kishan, who was dropped from the BCCI central contracts earlier this year due to concerns that he was “prioritising” the cash-rich Indian Premier League over domestic cricket, made his return to the India A setup.

Kishan was last part of the India squad during the tour of South Africa in 2023, which he had left midway.

The batter had reportedly taken a personal break which did not go down well with the BCCI.

After the player decided to skip the domestic competitions in the run-up to the IPL, the BCCI dropped him from the central contract.

India A squad for the tour of Australia: Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), Abhimanyu Easwaran (vice-captain), Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Baba Indrajith, Ishan Kishan (WK), Abishek Porel (WK) , Mukesh Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal, Navdeep Saini, Manav Suthar, Tanush Kotian.

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