The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has confirmed India A’s next tour. The team will travel to Nepal to play a three-match T20 series in December. The matches will be held at the TU International Cricket Ground in Kirtipur on December 9, 11 and 13.
The tour was finalised after talks between Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) president Chatur Bahadur Chand, secretary Paras Khadka and BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia during the ICC Annual Conference in Scotland. This is huge news for Nepal cricket, which has an upward graph. Meanwhile, the BCCI has done an incredible job, continuing with its trend of sending domestic and A teams to provide quality opposition to emerging cricket nations.
In recent years, Indian cricket has played a big role in helping Associate nations by organising tours and bilateral series. In 2024, Nepal took part in the SMS Friendship Cup in Gujarat along with the Gujarat and Baroda state teams as part of their T20 World Cup preparations.
BCCI Confirms India A’s Nepal Tour
Nepal impressed throughout the tournament and lifted the title after beating Gujarat in the final. More recently, Uganda toured Mumbai after the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) signed a five-year partnership with Cricket Uganda. Earlier this month, Vidarbha travelled to Namibia and competed strongly against the Namibian national side. Now, letting India A tour Nepal is a bigger step.
Unlike those previous tours, however, this one is likely to feature several players who are already on the fringes of the senior national side. The three T20s will be played from December 9 to 13. India’s Test tour of New Zealand concludes on December 1, while the home ODI series against Sri Lanka begins on December 13. That scheduling effectively rules out players expected to feature in the ODI setup such as Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and KL Rahul.
However, it opens the door for several T20 specialists. Potential India A names could include Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Prince Yadav and exciting youngster Suryansh Shedge. Given that India have no scheduled T20Is during that period, selectors could use the tour to assess players ahead of a packed white-ball calendar in 2027.