Ruturaj Gaikwad in new role for India: The India national cricket team will face the Afghanistan national cricket team for a Test and ODI series. However, the India A team will travel to Sri Lanka for a triangular series. Ahead of the series, the Men in Blue included Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag in the squad as an injury replacement for Rajasthan Royals, who has been ruled out with an injury.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Ruturaj Gaikwad has been added as a replacement. He replaces vice-captain Riyan Parag, who has been ruled out of the series due to a hamstring injury. The latter will undertake its own rehabilitation and will be managed by the BCCI Center of Excellence (CoE). This is a good opportunity for the CSK captain before the 2027 World Cup.
Ruturaj Gaikwad in new role for India A
Ruturaj Gaikwad, who has not been included in the main squad despite his good performance in the previous series versus South Africa where he played a crucial role at the No. 4 position in the absence of Shreyas Iyer, was dropped for the following series against New Zealand. He will be the vice-captain in the India A team.
Ruturaj, who didn’t have the best of performances in the IPL, will be looking to get back into form, especially keeping in mind next year’s ODI World Cup in South Africa, as he might get a chance as a backup to Shreyas Iyer with the experience of playing in that position before, and would like to force the selectors to look at him if he performs well in the upcoming series.
Gaikwad is continuously knocking on the door of senior India team
Ruturaj Gaikwad’s recent performances for the Men in Blue have been good in the 9 matches played in the 50-over format; He has scored 228 runs with one century and one half-century. But has had an excellent List A career with over 5000 runs and an average of 58.83, including 20 centuries and 19 half-centuries.
He was also the captain of the gold medal-winning Indian team at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. Gaikwad just needs a touch and an innings to get back to his best form, and this Sri Lanka tri-series will be crucial for him to get back into form. Gaikwad will also be responsible for helping the new young captain Tilak Verma in the series.
There are new faces in India A team
Vaibhav Suryavanshi, the Boy Wonder, made headlines during IPL 2026 as he had a fantastic IPL season, scoring 776 runs with a strike rate of over 200. Apart from the southpaw, Anukul Roy, who had a brilliant domestic season and a good season with KKR in the IPL, has replaced Harsh Dubey.
The tri-series will feature India A, Sri Lanka A and Afghanistan A. The white-ball matches will take place in Dambulla before the tour continues in Galle for two multi-day matches against Sri Lanka A. The teams for the red ball games will be revealed separately.
India A team updated for tri-series: Tilak Verma (captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vice-captain), Priyansh Arya, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Suryansh Shedge, Prabhsimran Singh (wicketkeeper), Kumar Kushagra (wicketkeeper), Vipraj Nigam, Yash Thakur, Yudhveer Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Arshad Khan, Anukul Roy
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