India A is scheduled to travel to Australia for a month-long quadrangular series against Cricket Australia’s National Performance Squad, South Africa A and Australia A. BCCI made four last minute changes where the captain and wicketkeeper Naman Ojha was replaced by Manish Pandey for the one-day series. Shahbaz Nadeem, Vijay Shankar and Akhil Herwadkar were the other three who were replaced by Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Mandeep Singh. These last minute changes by BCCI meant that the Mumbai Indians’ all-rounder Hardik Pandya has a new platform to perform and make a comeback in the first team.

In spite of missing out on the preparatory camp at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore, Hardik’s all-round capabilities helped him garner a spot in the India A squad. His performance was noteworthy in the in Dr. (Capt.) K Thimmappiah Memorial Cricket Tournament where he bagged 3 wickets against Haryana and gave away just 49 runs in 15 overs. Another positive for Hardik will be playing under coach Rahul Dravid, who has an eye for spotting raw talent and nurturing them. With this opportunity, Hardik seems to be upbeat for the tournament and thanked Mumbai Indians on Twitter “Thank you @mipaltan. I’ll give it my all in Australia”

The series is scheduled to start from 13th of August and here’s a look at the final India A Squad for limited-overs series: Manish Pandey, Faiz Fazal, Mandeep Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Barinder Sran, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sanju Samson.