Australia A rebuild both squads in India as the Sheffield Shield pulls three players home

Australia A have reshaped both of their squads in Puducherry, losing five players to the Sheffield Shield, injury and international duty inside two days

Three members of the four-day squad — Brendan Doggett, Fergus O'Neill and Campbell Kellaway — left the tour of India before the second match against India A, flying home to be available for the opening round of the Sheffield Shield season next week.

Cricket Australia moved on both fronts at once. Sam Harper, Jhye Richardson and Liam Hatcher came into the four-day side, while the one-day squad that meets India A from 6 October lost Aaron Hardie to a knee problem and Jack Edwards to Australia's senior ODI squad in South Africa.

Riley Meredith and Will Sutherland were named in their places, leaving a squad of 14 for the three one-day games.

Shield season pulls three players home

Doggett, O'Neill and Kellaway were all part of the group beaten by India A in the opening four-day match at the Cricket Association Pondicherry Siechem Ground, a defeat that left the tourists one down in the two-match series.

All three were wanted by their states for the first round of the Shield, the competition that still settles most Australian Test selection arguments.

Their departure thinned a party that had been built around senior batting and a deep pace group, and it came before a ball had been bowled in the second match.

Richardson leads a rebuilt attack

Richardson, whose international career has been interrupted repeatedly by shoulder injuries, takes the new ball in Puducherry, with Hatcher, the New South Wales seamer, sharing it.

Todd Murphy and off-spinner Corey Rocchiccioli carry the spin, and Harper, the Victoria wicketkeeper-batter, comes in at No. 7 and takes the gloves.

Captain Peter Handscomb won the toss on Tuesday and chose to bat, naming an XI of Sam Konstas, Josh Philippe, Nathan McSweeney, Handscomb, Jason Sangha, Liam Scott, Harper, Murphy, Richardson, Rocchiccioli and Hatcher.

Meredith rewarded for a One Day Cup four-for

Meredith's call-up followed 4-11 and the match award for Tasmania in their opening One Day Cup fixture against Western Australia, a reminder of the pace that has carried him through white-ball cricket for Australia.

He joins fellow Tasmanians Nikhil Chaudhary and Mitch Owen in the one-day group, where he replaces a player still managing a knee complaint.

Sutherland fills the gap left by a debutant

Edwards was always the likeliest of the A squad to be promoted. The New South Wales all-rounder made his one-day international debut against South Africa in Durban on 24 September and has stayed with the senior side for the rest of that tour.

Sutherland, the Victoria captain and a seam-bowling all-rounder of similar profile, takes his place alongside Mahli Beardman, Ben Dwarshuis, Spencer Johnson, Konstas, McSweeney, Murphy, Owen, Philippe, Tanveer Sangha, Scott, Lachlan Shaw and Chaudhary.

A crowded October in Puducherry

The whole tour is being played at one ground, with the second four-day match running to 2 October and the one-day series following on 6, 9 and 11 October.

For India A, captained by Devdutt Padikkal, the run of fixtures is a selection exercise of its own ahead of a long home summer, with Sai Sudharsan, Kumar Kushagra and Tushar Deshpande among those pressing for higher honours.

Australia A, meanwhile, will finish the trip with a squad barely recognisable from the one that arrived, and with a series to save before the one-day leg begins.

The second four-day match continues at the Cricket Association Pondicherry Siechem Ground until 2 October.

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