After a "very fruitful" tour to England, the India 'A' team returned home today greeted by the news that the entire squad had been invited to join the conditioning camp before the New Zealand series.
"I am very happy to hear that all the sixteen players have been invited to join the conditioning camp (for the New Zealand series) beginning on August 14 in Bangalore along with the seniors," said team manager Samiran Chakraborty.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India is expected to officially name the probables for the camp at Mumbai on Tuesday.
"The tour as a whole was very fruitful and the boys bowled out the strong South African team, which thrashed England by an innings and 92 runs in the second Test on Sunday, quite cheaply in a three-day match at Arundel," coach Sandeep Patil said after the team's arrival from London.
"We won five of the 11 matches we played while the other six were drawn and that itself proves the performance of the boys who have gained tremendously in self confidence," he said.
"All the guidelines put forward by the national selectors were achieved during the 45-day tour," Patil said.
Showering praise on the talented younsters, Patil, who guided Kenya to the World Cup semifinals earlier this year, said: "the frontline batsmen were among the runs and I should have a special word of praise for the seamers who bowled their heart out on flat pitches."
Wasim Jaffer, who hit a double ton in the last match against Warwickshire, S Sriram, who missed the first six matches with a wrist fracture, Gautam Gambhir, Skipper Shiv Sunder Das, his deputy Hemang Badani all contributed immensely to the team's success," Patil said.
He said only Vijay Bharadwaj and Satyajit Parab could not give their best as the former broke his finger during the middle of the tour while Parab was out of form.
The coach was impressed by the commitment of his wards and was confident that some of the players would also do well in the senior team.
"I was so impressed with their commitment that I would love to work with the same boys for the next two years though some of them will definitely do well in the senior team as well," Patil said.
Team manager Chakraborty recalled how the team progressed after starting with a win against British Universities on June 25 before recording victories against Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lancashire and Gloucestershire.
"The boys struggled a bit against Durham (the second match of the tour) and again at the fag end playing Warwickshire. But in between, they played magnificently," he said.
"As we had five players who could open the innings we had to play all of them. So we opened with Jaffer and Das in the three-day and four-day matches and used Gambhir, Sriram and Parab in the one-day games," Chakraborty said.
Das, Jaffer and left-arm spinner Murali Kartik stayed back to complete their stint with the minor counties while the rest of the contigent returned.
Wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel said he had achieved all his goals set for the tour.
"Whatever goals I had set for myself has been achieved on this tour and it was big success for all the members," he said.
"I am more confident as a batsman as I got runs in crucial matches and my performance behind the stumps too was satisfactory."
