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James Sutherland, Cricket Australia’s chief executive, has claimed the national team had near identical preparation to South Africa despite the facts telling a rather different story.As the hosts came to terms with another disastrous batting display on day one of the Hobart Test, Sutherland said that Steven Smith’s team could not blame their preparation for the poor results achieved so far this summer, following on from a 5-0 ODI defeat in South Africa and a 3-0 away pasting at the hands of Sri Lanka before that.”I’ve heard a little bit of commentary around preparation and I think it’s interesting. The first thing is that every summer is a little bit different,” Sutherland said on ABC Radio. “If we cast our minds forward to next year there will be more opportunities for Shield cricket, that’s a different schedule again because the season will start later.”But also that criticism around the preparation, I don’t think the preparation is anything that Australian cricket can complain about because South Africa have had the same schedule in terms of preparation as we have. We have both played each other in one-day matches in October, came through here, had various forms of long-form or other preparatory matches.”They played a game in Adelaide under lights as Shield cricket played under lights. So if you draw that comparison the team we are playing against hasn’t had any different preparation. So yes, ideally you might have a different preparation but the fact of the matter is you can’t.”In contradiction of Sutherland’s words, Australia’s players did not get the chance to play even a single match with a red ball in between the Sri Lanka and South Africa Test series. By contrast, many of South Africa’s players – those not taking part in the ODIs at home – were able to play first-class cricket during this period, and then had two warm-up matches in contrast to the one (pink ball) Shield game played before the Perth Test.Sutherland noted that there was a wider effort currently being undertaken at ICC level to reduce the amount of international cricket played while adding the context of league structures across each format. Such a move would in turn allow more room for domestic schedules to breathe.”The reality is the future tours program requires us to play a certain amount of cricket at home and whatever we play at home we’ve got to reciprocate away,” he said. “So the complexity around that is greater because most countries share the same season as us. So we have to find ourselves playing matches like we did this year in October against South Africa. We couldn’t play them earlier because that’s not their season, their season is October. We are having them and then Pakistan later in our peak season.”From that perspective the schedule is difficult and at ICC level it’s something we’re working very hard on to try and get more structure to refine the way in which international cricket is played and to be honest ultimately play less international cricket so that it’s more valuable and is not these random series that crop up all the time. That we have context through some sort of a league structure. The hope is there will be less international cricket which allows gaps in preparation but also ideally for international cricket to be more valuable and precious.”Responding to criticism directed at the captain Steven Smith, Sutherland said that while all were impatient for immediate success, there was a strong belief within CA that Smith was the right man for the job – as evidenced by his steely innings while the rest fell around him on day one at Bellerive Oval.”We’re certainly very conscious of the fact that Steve has come into the role much younger…than any of his four or five predecessors,” Sutherland said. “I had a look the other day – you go back to Border, Taylor, Waugh, Ponting, Clarke…between 29 and 34 I think they came into the captaincy of the Australian team. Steve was 26. All of them came in being world-class batsmen. But I don’t think if you look back in history, certainly in my time [as CEO], none of them have made an easy or smooth transition into the job.”It’s a big step up and it’s a real challenge and even more so if you don’t have the players around you that are performing as well as they might or could or whatever. So that added challenge is there. But we have a very high regard for Steve Smith as a person, as a leader, and obviously as a cricketer and we think that with his support and as he builds the team around him and they perform he’s got a very bright future as a leader for a long time.”

Railways collapsed dramatically on the final day in Bilaspur as Tamil Nadu won by 174 runs – their first win of the season. Railways had picked up a 52-run first-innings lead. Tamil Nadu made up for their abject first-innings performance with 452 for 8 declared, courtesy centuries from captain Abhinav Mukund and Dinesh Karthik. Set 401, Railways had ended the third day on 108 for no loss, but crumbled for 226 in 57.2 overs on the final day. Railways lost Shivakant Shukla on his overnight score of 52 off the fourth ball of the day, and from there on, it was a continuous slide. Saurabh Wakaskar, who resumed on 54, struck 120 for his sixth first-class century, but the rest could not deliver and Railways lost their last five wickets for four runs. Offspinner Malolan Rangarajan led the wreckage, finishing with 4 for 37.At the CH Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium in Lahli, Madhya Pradesh folded for 180 in their second innings to give Punjab a 126-run win. Punjab had declared on 175 for 9, having taken a first-innings lead of 131. Set a target of 307, MP had lost Mukul Raghav off the last ball of the previous day. Resuming on 26 for 1, they soon found themselves 74 for 4. Devendra Bundela (32), the captain, and Shubham Sharma, who top-scored with 37, got together for a 50-run stand, but that was about as much resistance as MP could offer. Manpreet Gony (4 for 41) and Siddarth Kaul (3 for 42), Punjab’s new-ball bowlers, did the bulk of the damage.The match between Baroda and Mumbai at the Palam Grounds in New Delhi was a draw. Mumbai had eked out a lead of 18 runs in a thrilling end to their first innings, responding to Baroda’s 305 with 323, thanks to Akhil Herwadkar’s century.The final day began with Baroda on 321 for 5 in their second innings, and Deepak Hooda, batting on 66, and Swapnil Singh, unbeaten on 5, at the crease. Baroda added 62 more and declared on 383 for 5, after Hooda raised his fifth first-class century.Mumbai began strongly through their top three, with Herwadkar and Jay Bista (49) putting on 68 for the opening wicket, and Shreyas Iyer scoring 46 at No. 3. Suryakumar Yadav and Armaan Jaffer fell early, but Aditya Tare, the captain, saw off the remaining overs in the company of Abhishek Nayar. Tare was not out on 63 and Mumbai were 224 for 5 when stumps were drawn.Bengal collected first-innings points against Uttar Pradesh after playing out a draw at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Bengal had put up 466 in the first innings, courtesy centuries from Abhimanyu Easwaran and Manoj Tiwary. UP narrowly missed the first-innings lead, getting bowled out for 410, after which Bengal ended the third day on 30 for no loss. Easwaran struck his second century of the match and stayed not out on 110, while Shreevats Goswami also scored a century of his own. After Goswami’s dismissal, for an even 100, Bengal declared on 274 for 6. Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav followed up his five-wicket haul in the first innings with 4 for 107.Tanmay Shrivastava and Almas Saukat, the UP openers, batted out 20 overs before UP went to stumps on 70 for no loss.

Pakistan’s decision to rest Mohammad Amir in Abu Dhabi had been met with mixed reactions. The critics said a break might hamper the 24-year-old fast bowler’s rhythm. But there was also the argument that he was playing international cricket for the first time in five years and had already stacked up 202.3 overs on a long tour of England and 45 more during Pakistan’s first day-night Test in Dubai.Perhaps considering UAE Tests are decided by the batsmen and spinners’ contributions, and with two important series coming up – against New Zealand in November and Australia in December – the Pakistan selectors decided to give Amir some time off. The move seems to have worked.In Sharjah, on the second day of the third Test against West Indies, Amir looked like a man refreshed, picking up two wickets on a slow pitch and also pulling off a spectacular catch to dismiss Darren Bravo. Until that moment, when he ran back from cover, dived after the ball and got hold of it while horizontal with the ground, Amir had not had a single Test catch to his name.

Kraigg Brathwaite on…

What West Indies must do on day three: “We are in a good position. It is key for me and Jason [Holder] to start fresh and build a big partnership, then look to build a really big lead. The aim for me is to really build a big lead. If Jason and I can spend time at the wicket, rotate the strike, hopefully we can get as big a lead as possible.”
On the pitch: “It isn’t spinning sharply at the moment. [But] the pitch is cracking up a bit, and later tomorrow it will probably crack some more and get some spin. If we can go on and get the lead, then build on that, that will be very good for us.”
On his 83-run fifth-wicket stand with Roston Chase, after West Indies were 68 for 4: “Me and Chase went to school together, so we have a good relationship. I said to him to play as straight as possible. Obviously the pitch is low, so it is key we hit straight down the ground, then rotate the strike, and after that we had a good partnership.”

“It was a combined decision between me and the team management to take a rest and that’s fine,” Amir said. “A bowler can be rested from time to time; even Wahab [Riaz] was rested [in Abu Dhabi] and those who replaced us, Rahat Ali and Sohail Khan, did well. We are just developing our combination. I have been playing for a year now and I think fast bowlers should rest whenever there is a chance.”Because you never know, I or Wahab can be injured at any time. It can happen in cricket and you can’t do anything about that. So when you have a strong bench you can rotate the bowlers you have and give the others some chances as well. Our next tours, New Zealand and Australia, are lengthy so all of us need to be match-ready in case you need someone as cover for an unexpected injury.”Since Amir regained the eligibility to play for Pakistan after his involvement in the spot-fixing scandal in 2010, he has claimed 17 Test wickets at an average of 39.41. Those statistics, however, may have to be taken with a pinch of salt considering he had several catches dropped off his bowling in England. While he has not lost any pace, constantly hitting the low- to mid-140s, the swing he was known for is not quite there.”Playing Test cricket after five years is not very easy and I started with a tough England tour. It takes time to regain your rhythm,” Amir said. “But I feel I am getting there and getting my rhythm back gradually. I did face some problems with fitness earlier, which was expected. After five years of being idle, it’s very tough for a fast bowler to immediately be back at his best. It can’t be done overnight, you need to keep on performing. I still have a long career ahead of me and I am working hard to get where I was before skills-wise.”The swing was missing in England but now I have started developing the shape. And I have mostly been playing T20 cricket since coming back, where I bowl with a different arm-action. I was also going wide of the crease earlier but now I have minimised it and worked on my arm-action and its working my way.”Amir was looking forward to doing well in the two Tests in New Zealand – he is part of a 16-man squad that was announced on Monday – and then three more in Australia, including a day-night Test in Brisbane; Pakistan have yet to name a squad for that series.”Going to New Zealand and Australia and performing there, in those conditions, it gives you immense confidence. I have been to both countries earlier and the pitches there help fast bowlers. With the exposure of playing on tracks like these in UAE, you definitely get a lot of confidence to do well there.”Amir was happiest talking about his catch, though, which helped Pakistan get on top of West Indies. “We actually train to develop these kinds of skills with our fielding coach; it is quite a regular thing. That wicket of Bravo was very important as he was the batsman we wanted to get as soon as possible. We created the opportunity and I made the effort to get him out. So it worked well.”Then, with the wickets of Jermaine Blackwood for 23 and Roston Chase for 50, Amir also helped contain West Indies’ fightback as Pakistan ended the second day with a 37-run lead. They still have four more first-innings wickets to take though.

Adil Rashid has defended his request to be omitted from Yorkshire’s final County Championship match of the season, against Middlesex at Lord’s starting tomorrow, citing a family illness as an additional reason for his absence.Rashid, whose busy year has included stints with Adelaide Strikers in the Big Bash and a leading role in England’s World T20 campaign in India, asked to be excused from Yorkshire’s potential County Championship decider because he needed to rest ahead of England’s tour of Bangladesh, which gets underway at the end of the month.Yorkshire go into the final round needing victory against the current leaders, Middlesex, to have any chance of securing their third title in a row, and they will have to do so without the services of either Rashid or Jonny Bairstow, who was controversially refused permission by the ECB to take part in the contest.Jason Gillespie, preparing for his final match as Yorkshire coach, told ESPNcricinfo: “It’s obviously frustrating about Rash and I said to him I hope he doesn’t regret the decision he has made. But I fully respect his decision. He has played a lot of cricket and he feels he needs a rest.”However, in a pointed tweet, Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale, who has been known to let his emotions show in the past, posted: “Yes, he wants to rest. That’s his decision. I’ll take 11 lads on the field who will give everything to win.”While the club itself stopped short of criticising their player, who has claimed 32 wickets at 33.84 and 393 runs at 28.07 in ten Championship appearances this season, Yorkshire’s supporters have not been so kind, and in a statement posted on his Twitter account on Monday, Rashid insisted his decision had been influenced by a family member, believed to be his grandmother, being admitted to hospital.”Unfortunately I have not travelled down with the Yorkshire lads this week as one of my closest family members has been very ill and was recently admitted to hospital,” read the statement. “I didn’t feel that I am in a strong enough mental frame of mind to be at my best, although I did make myself available if I was required to play I felt I could be letting the lads down. But coupled with my personal reasons I have also had a heavy period of cricket recently for Yorkshire and England which has been both physically and mentally draining and it is very unfortunate timing.”Family comes first for me and I will be away on England duty this winter with a busy playing schedule. I have been in touch with the Yorkshire players and coaches and I will be wishing the lads all the best this game and I am desperately hoping we can lift the trophy for a 3rd year in a row.”Martyn Moxon, Yorkshire’s director of cricket, sought to move on in , suggesting that illness of a family member had latterly become “a secondary reason”. Moxon said: “Initially it was about him saying he was tired and sore and stiff and so on. As fdar as we are concerned it is the end of the matter… there is no animosity at all.”

ScorecardJake Lehmann anchored Yorkshire’s first innings (file photo)•Getty Images

“Don’t look down, look up” goes the old Yorkshire adage about whether to bat or bowl first at Headingley. A few hundred miles south at the Ageas Bowl the proverb is ever-more appropriate, as overhead conditions appear to be shaping the game at Hampshire’s ground with increasing regularity.Upon winning the toss in this crucial match, with repercussions for the top and bottom of the Championship table, Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale looked up, saw a cloudless blue sky and opted to bat. With the two most recent first-innings scores at this ground being 637 for 7 and 548 for 6 Hampshire would have been forgiven for preparing themselves for another long stint in the field, having last week been run ragged for 137.4 overs in their most recent Championship match at Taunton.In a season in which fortune has frequently frowned on Hampshire, with injuries and illness robbing them of some of their best players, they could probably hardly believe their luck when after just 20 minutes of play, in which Yorkshire’s openers had looked relatively untroubled, the sky was suddenly choked by dense and leaden clouds. Five minutes later the floodlights were on, a couple of balls jagged sharply past the outside edge and the whole feeling of the occasion had been transformed.

‘Family comes first’ – Gillespie

Jason Gillespie has reiterated that his decision to leave his position as Yorkshire head coach was due to a desire to spend more time with his family.
“This decision hasn’t come around as quickly as it may have seemed. It’s been in the pipeline for a little while,” Gillespie said. “I didn’t want to make any snap decisions but considering all things I’m sure it is the right time. Family is the most important thing and the brutal reality is that seven or eight months away from the family just doesn’t work. And that’s just the honest truth. It was a difficult decision to stand down because I love it.
“I feel that we have made some great strides and there is more for this group of players to achieve but it’s time for someone else to take the team further forward.
“My main job is as a husband and a father. Cricket’s my hobby and my second job so to speak. I have to be true to that, and that’s why I’ve made this decision.”

What followed was an engrossingly competitive day that ebbed and flowed as readily as the clouds rolled in and out, in which ball dominated bat for large swathes of it and ended with Hampshire in a decidedly better position than perhaps even they would have envisaged at 11am.If Hampshire are indeed relegated this season, which remains likely, the locals are unlikely to see cricket bearing the intensity and meaning of that which they witnessed in the morning session for some time. The air was heavy with import as Ryan McLaren, Brad Wheal and Gareth Berg stared the top order of county cricket’s northern powerhouse straight in the eyes and matched them blow for blow, beating the edge by getting the ball to spit, bounce, seam and swing.As well as Hampshire bowled in that opening session it was the catching of Will Smith that could be largely credited with the wickets of Yorkshire’s left-handed openers. Both Alex Lees, against McLaren, and Adam Lyth, against Wheal, tried to force balls through the off side delivered from round the wicket that were arguably not wide enough to do so too, and on both occasions Smith, diving to his right at a wide gully, first with two hands and then spectacularly with one, was there to intercept the ball inches above the turf.The brilliance of Smith did not rub off on to James Vince, whose catching struggles continued as he dropped England team-mate and possible rival for a winter tour spot, Gary Ballance, twice in less than 15 minutes at third slip. It was third time unlucky for Ballance however when wicketkeeper Lewis McManus did not make the same mistake as his captain when a hint of swing extracted a fine edge to leave Yorkshire teetering at 57 for 3.It was then that the pendulum began to swing back towards Yorkshire as Gale and Jake Lehmann combined in a 62-run partnership either side of lunch that arrested their slide. Lehmann’s counter-attacking innings of 58 from 73 balls made for enjoyable viewing. He is a punchy player, unafraid to play his shots and his quickness to pick up length is an enticing trait.After Gale was squared up by McLaren and Lehmann brilliantly caught by Jimmy Adams playing one cut shot too many, the game swung towards Hampshire again only for Tim Bresnan to wrest it back with a typically tough fifty from No. 6.It was after tea with the floodlights on and dark skies above that Hampshire built on the foundations of their strong first two sessions. A superb spell by Berg, in which he took 3 for 13 from five overs and got the ball to move wickedly off the pitch, gutted Yorkshire’s lower order, instigating a dramatic collapse from 212 for 5 to 234 for 9. The three wickets sealed Berg his first five wicket-haul since September 2011. He, like Hampshire more generally, were assisted by the conditions but it took skill to utilise them.Just how important Yorkshire’s unbeaten tenth wicket partnership of 41 between Jack Brooks and Ryan Sidebottom was will become apparent after Hampshire have batted. This felt like a good day for Hampshire, especially after being put into the field, but batting was not easy and Yorkshire have the bowlers to cause real damage if helpful conditions persist.

The CARICOM has reaffirmed its resolve to dissolve the West Indies Cricket Board and said it would soon create another prime ministerial sub-committee that would have wider say on cricket in the Caribbean. A CARICOM cricket review panel had made the recommendation to dissolve the WICB in November 2015, in a report that termed the board’s governance structure as “antiquated”, “obsolete” and “anachronistic”.”We will do everything possible to effect the decision,” Grenada prime minister Keith Mitchell told the at the end of the CARICOM Heads of Government conference, which concluded on July 6 in Guyana. “We’re looking at legal options on the basis that cricket is a public good run by a private institution.”The regional body also discounted the remarks of Gaston Browne, the Antigua and Barbuda prime minister, who had categorically rejected the idea of dissolving the WICB.Mitchell, who is the outgoing head of the CARICOM sub-committee on cricket that had backed the panel’s findings last year, said the opposition to WICB’s current governance structure was not his alone, but a collective one and, hence, Browne’s opposition did not carry much weightage.”[It is a] common position of the Heads, not individual positions, and we cannot operate on the basis of individual positions, it’s about the Heads,” Mitchell was quoted as having said by . “When I expressed my sentiments on cricket, it was about what the Heads said – the committee that we established jointly with the West Indies Cricket Board – and we agreed between the subcommittee and the West Indies Cricket Board to implement the recommendations.”So it was not a Keith Mitchell decision, it was not a Keith Mitchell activity, it was a committee set up by the West Indies Cricket Board and the Heads of Government.”The CARICOM cricket review panel was appointed by the Prime Ministerial Committee on the Governance of West Indies Cricket in the wake of the crisis that engulfed the board after the BCCI suspended bilateral ties and slapped $41.97 million as damages following West Indies’ decision to pull out midway through their India tour in 2014. Set up to review the governance and administrative structure of the WICB, the five-member panel, comprising V. Eudine Barriteau, Sir Dennis Byron, Dwain Gill, Deryck Murray and Warren Smith submitted a damning report.Apart from its comments on the current set-up, the panel strongly recommended the establishment of an interim board in place of the WICB. However, Dave Cameron, the WICB president, rejected the panel’s findings, saying they were not supported by facts.The WICB received further support from Browne, who broke ranks with CARICOM. Browne continued to remain defiant even this week. “That (recommendation to dissolve) is a recipe for chaos and confusion and we are totally opposed to any forced dissolution of the West Indies Cricket Board,” Browne told the .Regardless, the CARICOM heads have refused to give up their stance on WICB. According to Roosevelt Skerrit, the Dominica prime minister and chairman of CARICOM, an additional sub-committee on cricket with a much wider scope will be appointed soon. “There were two before; one on governance issues and one of the larger issues confronting cricket…this is a new committee on cricket mandated to examine all matters relating to the development of cricket, which is a very wide area of concentration.”

Paul Farbrace, England’s assistant coach, believes there are now more than 20 players who could be selected at any time in the one-day side and still give England a winning combination.England secured the one-day series against Sri Lanka with a barnstorming chase at The Oval on Wednesday led by Jason Roy’s 162 off 118. They have used 12 players in the four matches – Chris Jordan replacing Moeen Ali in Bristol being the only change – with Steven Finn and James Vince remaining on the sidelines.The absence of Finn has been notable, given that before the series he was talking up being the leader of England’s one-day attack, with James Anderson and Stuart Broad not part of the white-ball set-up. Instead, Chris Woakes, David Willey and Liam Plunkett have been the ever-presents in England’s pace attack against Sri Lanka alongside the legspin of Adil Rashid.Other players on the fringes of the limited-overs team included the uncapped pair of Dawid Malan and Liam Dawson, who are both in the T20 squad to face Sri Lanka, while Ben Stokes, Mark Wood and Reece Topley are currently unavailable due to injury.Eoin Morgan, England’s limited-overs captain, has spoken of the need to build a squad of players to compete on a regular basis across different conditions and Farbrace believes the focus given to white-ball cricket since the start of last season, at the instigation of Andrew Strauss, is starting to bear fruit.”If you look outside the team, there’s no Stokes, Vince is sitting on the sidelines, Finn, Wood,” he said. “There’s some very exciting people on the fringes and people know they’ve got to play well to stay in the team. There’s probably 21 players who could play in the England side at any time and we’d still be a strong side.”Credit to Andrew Strauss for saying he wanted white-ball and red-ball cricket to be taken as seriously as each other and it was time to stop thinking about ourselves as a Test-playing country only and resting people for Test cricket and making sure they’re ready.”We’ve built the pool of players for white-ball cricket and have an exciting group with people focusing on just that. It’s made a big difference but you have to have the ability in your side to do it and there’s no question there is the ability in this side.”England are building towards the next two 50-over global events which will be staged on home soil – the 2017 Champions Trophy and 2019 World Cup – but Farbrace says that further advancements are needed to make England credible contenders, especially for the 2019 event.He believes that if England are to be one of the favourites for the World Cup they need to sit in the top three of the one-day rankings a year out from the tournament. A 3-0 series result will leave them in fifth place, the position they moved to after victory at The Oval, but a consolation win for Sri Lanka in Cardiff would put them back at sixth.”The one thing we’ve looked at is teams who have won the World Cup pretty much have been one, two or three in the world,” he said. “If we’re going to be realistic challengers at the World Cup in 2019 I reckon we’ve got to be in the top two or three in the world, which means we’ve got to be far more consistent than we have been and if we are with home conditions and support that gives us a really good chance. If we’re seventh or eighth we’re hoping to do well as we did last time as opposed to expecting to do well.”I think if we are going to win it we’ve got to be in the top two or three, certainly within 12 months of the tournament starting. That’s got to be our goal. If we are I think we’ve got a good chance. I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be if we keep playing that way. The World T20 was a magnificent confidence boost for them and if we can play well in the Champions Trophy next year and come close to winning that who knows where that takes us?”But while work remains, there is understandable satisfaction about how England’s one-day cricket has evolved: the 308-run chase at The Oval was the side’s third 300-plus chase in the last 12 months; they had only ever achieved that twice previously.”They have come a long way and have exceeded all expectations of where we thought they’d be 12 months ago,” Farbrace said. “We said towards the end of last summer we weren’t going to pin down too many gameplans, we’d just let people go and have another 12 months of seeing how far we can go. But the shape of the team and how they’re playing is happening naturally rather than us having to stick too many plans in their way and that freedom is evident as well.”

Ten changes were made to the India A squad that will play Australia A, South Africa A and Cricket Australia’s National Performance Squad in a quadrangular series in Townsville and Mackay in August. The tour also comprises two four-day games against Australia A in Brisbane in September.

Ins and outs

For quadrangular series
In: Naman Ojha, Akhil Herwadkar, Faiz Fazal, Shreyas Iyer, Vijay Shankar, Axar Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Barinder Sran, Shahbaz Nadeem
Out: Unmukt Chand, Mayank Agarwal, Rishi Dhawan, S Aravind, Gurkeerat Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Rush Kalaria, Suresh Raina, Karn Sharma
For four-day games
In: Faiz Fazal, Akhil Herwadkar, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Axar Patel, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Barinder Sran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sanju Samson
Out: Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Gopal, Baba Aparajith, Sheldon Jackson, Ravindra Jadeja, Abhimanyu Mithun, Abhinav Mukund, Ishwar Pandey

Unmukt Chand, who led India A to victory against Bangladesh A in their last one-day series last September, has been dropped, and Naman Ojha will lead the team in both formats. He was in prime form when the team had been in Australia in 2014, scoring 219*, 101* and 110 in three successive innings.Shreyas Iyer, who recorded the second-highest aggregate in a Ranji Trophy season recently, earned his first call up for an overseas tour with India A. Iyer scored 1414 runs in the 2015-16 first-class season but could not carry that success into the IPL, where he managed just 30 runs in six innings.Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem, who took 51 wickets in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy – the most by any bowler, was also called up. Varun Aaron is set to lead the fast-bowling attack.Faiz Fazal, who scored an unbeaten 55 on his international debut against Zimbabwe in June, found a place as well. He will have Axar Patel, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Kedar Jadhav and Barinder Sran as team-mates again.Sanju Samson, who said he had learnt to bat in the middle order when India A won the title in the last quadrangular one-day series in Australia, has been picked again.Tamil Nadu allrounder Vijay Shankar and Mumbai opener Akhil Herwadkar also found spots. Herwadkar scored 879 runs in 11 matches at 48.83 in the Ranji Trophy to finish second in the tournament’s batting charts.Apart from Chand, Mayank Agarwal, Rishi Dhawan, S Aravind, Karn Sharma and Gurkeerat Singh were the other notable omissions.India A begin their campaign against Australia A on August 14 and end it against the same team on September 18.India A squad: Naman Ojha (capt), Faiz Fazal, Akhil Herwadkar, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Varun Aaron, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Barinder Sran, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sanju Samson