With India A's red-ball group already committed to a New Zealand trip later this year, a separate India A squad has a home assignment first. Australia A will tour India for two four-day matches and three ODIs against India A, all played in Puducherry between September 22 and October 11, and Cricket Australia has now named the squads for it.
The two four-day matches run September 22-25 and September 29-October 2, both at Puducherry, followed by three List A fixtures on October 6, 9 and 11 at the same venue. Unlike India A's upcoming New Zealand tour, this entire series is being played at one ground — a compact, single-venue block rather than a multi-city itinerary.
Australia A's four-day squad is built around players with senior international experience and others knocking on the door of a recall: Peter Handscomb, Sam Konstas, Nathan McSweeney, Jason Sangha, Josh Philippe, Sam Harper, Campbell Kellaway and Jack Edwards lead the batting group, with Brendan Doggett, Liam Hatcher, Jhye Richardson, Todd Murphy, Fergus O'Neill and Corey Rocchiccioli making up the bowling attack. The List A squad overlaps significantly but brings in white-ball options including Aaron Hardie, Spencer Johnson, Mahli Beardman, Mitch Owen and Tanveer Sangha.
Two names carry particular weight. Peter Handscomb gets another route back into Australia's Test picture after previous recalls, and a red-ball series on Indian pitches is about as direct an audition as a middle-order batter can get ahead of a tour there. Jhye Richardson's inclusion is notable for a different reason — it marks his return to first-class selection after multiple shoulder surgeries, and Australia's selectors will be watching his workload through these four-day games as much as his figures. Sam Konstas and Nathan McSweeney, both already familiar to Indian conditions from recent age-group and A-tours, round out a top order clearly being managed with next year's tour in mind.
This series exists for a specific reason. Australia's senior team is scheduled to tour India for a full Test series in 2026-27, and an Australia A trip through Indian conditions — on pitches that behave nothing like those at home — is the standard preparation step Cricket Australia has leaned on before previous Border-Gavaskar Trophy tours. Every batter facing Indian spin in Puducherry this September is effectively banking data and confidence for a much bigger assignment a few months later.
India A's squad for this series hasn't been the headline story — selectors have plenty of red-ball form to draw from after a competitive Duleep Trophy season that's produced runs and wickets from players across all six zones. Expect the India A group named for Puducherry to lean on players who impressed through the Duleep Trophy but missed out on the senior T20I squads for Afghanistan and the Asian Games.
Beyond the individual auditions, this series is a rare chance to watch Australia's fast-bowling depth — Doggett, Hatcher, Richardson and O'Neill — tested together against Indian batting in first-class conditions before the stakes get higher. Results and team news will sharpen the picture of who Australia trust with the new ball come the actual Test tour.
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Schedule, venues and squad names are verified against same-day reporting on the Australia A squad announcement, current as of September 3, 2026.
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