Kaif to lead India 'A'; Pathan, Chawla, VRV Singh included

Mumbai, July 7 (UNI) Team India discard Mohd Kaif will lead the 16-member India 'A' team on the month-long tour of Zimbabwe and Kenya beginning July 21.

India 'A' will play two four-day games on their tour of Zimbabwe, while they will be involved in a one-day triangular series with Kenya and Zimbabwe being the other teams and two three-day games on their tour of Kenya.

The national selectors which met here today under the chairmanship of Dilip Vengsarkar have also included promising young leg spinner Piyush Chawla and former India pace bowlers Irfan Pathan and V R V Singh in the 16-member squad.

Vengsarkar giving the reasons for a 16-member squad instead of the customary 15-member team said that the team apart from four-day games is also scheduled to play a one-day tri series and therefore the need for an extra player arose.

The team will have two wicket keepers with Parthiv Patel also being the vice captain and Mahesh Rawat of Haryana being the second wicket keeper.

Youngsters Robin Uthappa and Rohit Sharma who were in the India team for the recently conducted overseas one-dayers in Ireland and Scotland have also been included in the team.

Maharashtra coach Chandrakant Pandit has also been selected as the coach of the India 'A' team.

The team: Mohd. Kaif (c), Parthiv Patel (v-c, wicket-keeper), Robin Uthappa, Cheteshwar Pujara, S Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Rajesh Pawar, Mahesh Rawat (wicket-keeper), Piyush Chawla, Arjun Yadav, Pragyan Ojha, Irfan Pathan, V R V Singh, Yo Mahesh, Pankaj Singh, Neeraj Patel.

Coach: Chandrakant Pandit Manager: T C Mathew (manager), Physiotherapist: Vaibhav Daga.

UNI