New Delhi: As calls to fast-track Vaibhav Sooryavanshi into the Indian team grow louder, he took another step closer to the national team after being named in the 15-member India A squad for the tri-nation One Day International series in Sri Lanka, starting June 9.
The squad, which will face ‘A’ sides of Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in the competition, will be led by Tilak Varma with Riyan Parag named his deputy.
Apart from the hosts, the other team in the tournament is Afghanistan A. The matches will be played in Dambulla. India A will also play two multi-day (4-day) ‘Tests’ in Galle but the squad for that will be announced later.
With an eye on the Indian men’s senior team’s upcoming tour of the United Kingdom later in June, selectors included Sooryavanshi to assess him with the India A squad before promoting him to the senior team.
Sooryavanshi has continued his fine run in the ongoing IPL 2026, having amassed 440 runs from 11 innings so far at a strike-rate of 236.56. He was a member of India’s Under-19 World Cup winning squad earlier this year, a feat he helped achieve with a memorable 175 in the final against England.
He also featured in the ACC Men’s Asia Cup Rising Stars 2025 and finished as the second highest run-scorer with 239 runs in 4 matches at an average of 59.75.
The tri-nation series ends on June 21. Apart from Tilak and vice-captain Riyan Parag and Sooryavanshi – mainstays for Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals respectively – Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Suryansh Shedge, Harsh Dubey, Nishant Sindhu, Arshad Khan, and Ayush Badoni have also been included in the squad.
The tri-series is set to begin with the hosts taking on India A on June 9 and will feature a double round-robin format before the top two teams face off in the final on June 21. India A will also play two multi-day matches against Sri Lanka A, with the squad for the red-ball fixtures to be announced at a later date. The white-ball series will be played in Dambulla while the red-ball matches will take place in Galle.
In the squad, Anshul Kamboj (Test), Riyan Parag and Tilak Varma (T20Is and ODIs) have already played for the senior team while Ayush Badoni was picked in the Indian squad earlier this year although he didn’t get a game. Tilak has earlier led the India A squad while Arya had scored a hundred against Australia A last year.
The spinners include Dubey, Shedge, Vipraj Nigam while Prabhsimran and Kumar Kushagra are the two wicketkeepers.
India A squad: Tilak Varma (Captain), Priyansh Arya, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Riyan Parag (Vice-Captain), Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Harsh Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Prabhsimran Singh (WK), Kumar Kushagra (WK), Vipraj Nigam, Yash Thakur, Yudhvir Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Arshad Khan.