Reports: Fitness test failure reason behind Suresh Raina’s exclusion from India A team

The Board of Control for Cricket in India, on Monday, announced teams for the five-match one-day series against New Zealand A to be played in Visakhapatnam, starting October 6, in which Shreyas Iyer will lead the side in the first three games, while Rishabh Pant will be the captain for the last two games. However, the main talking point in the team was the exclusion of Suresh Raina, who led the India Blue in the just-concluded Duleep Trophy.

But, if a report in the Times of India is to be believed, the Uttar Pradesh skipper failed in the fitness test at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore and thus, he, along with, Amit Mishra, who had even trained for at least four months inside the NCA complex, was ruled out. With the Indian No.4 conundrum rising like never before, Raina was in the fray to fill the slot and the selectors were looking at the India A matches to check his match fitness level. With Raina failing the fitness test, it has only delayed, if not ended, his comeback into the national team.

However, surprisingly, 17-year-old Washington Sundar, who has been in a red-hot form – scoring runs and taking wickets in the Duleep Trophy and the Tamil Nadu Premier League – also failed to pass the test and thus has been excluded from the team. The former India U-19 player Washington Sunder announced his arrival in domestic cricket when he helped India Red lift the Duleep recently.