BCCI adds Deepak Chahar and Ishan Kishan to India 'A' squad for South Africa tour - Reports

Deepak Chahar and Ishan Kishan have been added to the India 'A' squad for the upcoming four-day games against South Africa 'A'. Both players are currently in Kolkata ahead of the final T20I match between India and New Zealand.

According to Cricbuzz, both Deepak Chahar and Ishan Kishan will assemble in Mumbai on November 24 and board a flight to South Africa. The report claims pace-bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur could be added to the squad as well.

India 'A' and South Africa 'A' will play an unofficial Test series from November 23 to December 29. The series starts this Tuesday, and the Priyank Panchal-led outfit have already landed in Bloemfontein for the four-day games. Here is the updated India 'A' squad:

India ‘A’ squad for South Africa tour: Priyank Panchal (Captain), Prithvi Shaw, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Baba Aparajith, Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper), Upendra Yadav (wicket-keeper), K Gowtham, Rahul Chahar, Saurabh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Umran Malik, Ishan Porel, Deepak Chahar and Arzan Nagwaswalla.

The report also has details about the coaching staff of the India 'A' team for the South Africa 'A' series. Shitanshu Kotak will be the head coach, with Sairaj Bahutule as the bowling coach and T Ghosh being the fielding coach.

Deepak Chahar and Ishan Kishan have not played first-class cricket in 2021

Interestingly, neither Deepak Chahar nor Ishan Kishan have played first-class cricket this year. Chahar's last first-class appearance came in January 2019. He turned up for Rajasthan in a match against Karnataka, scoring 22 runs and scalping two wickets.

Ishan Kishan's last first-class appearance came in a match between Jharkhand and Odisha in February 2020. Kishan scored only 13 runs off 52 deliveries in that game. It will be interesting to see how he and Deepak Chahar perform in the upcoming matches.