Pant and Rahane.

NEW DELHI: The Indian team is on roll in ODI cricket, but the team management is still exploring options for the top order leading to the World Cup in England.

Rishabh Pant and Ajinkya Rahane are part of this contingency plan. The national selectors announced on Saturday the India 'A' team for the five-match one-day series against England Lions at home.

Rahane has been named the captain for the first three fixtures to be played in Thiruvananthapuram from January 23, Pant has been included only for the last two one-dayers.

TOI has reliably learnt that the Indian team management has asked Pant to bat up the order in these two one-dayers before he flies out to New Zealand for the three-match T20I series in February.

Sources close to the selectors said that the uncertainty over KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya - who are caught in a legal tangle for their 'misconduct' on a TV show - has prompted the team management to keep back-ups ready.

TOI understands that there is some doubt over Shikhar Dhawan 's form in ODIs. The left-handed opener has not scored a half-century since returning from the Asia Cup in UAE in September. There is also some unease over the form of Ambati Rayudu as an option to bat at No. 4.

"Recently, Pant has been told by the team management to bat up the order and get used to the newer ball. If need be, Pant could come in as a reserve top order batsman. The selectors don't want a situation where they don't have a back-up ready. Anyway, Pant was given rest to come back fresh for the limited-overs season," the source told TOI.

The selectors had asked Pant to bat in the middle-order in domestic cricket for the last one and a half years. Now that MS Dhoni has regained form and Dinesh Karthik and Kedar Jadhav have performed under pressure, the middle-order is pretty much settled.

INDIA A SQUAD FOR 1ST, 2ND & 3RD ONE-DAYERS: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Anmolpreet Singh, Rituraj Gaekwad, Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari, Ankit Bawne, Ishan Kishan (WK), Krunal Pandya, Axar Patel, Mayank Markande, Jayant Yadav, Siddarth Kaul, Shardul Thakur , Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini

INDIA A SQUAD FOR 4TH & 5TH ONE-DAYERS: Ankit Bawne (C), Rituraj Gaekwad, Anmolpreet Singh, Ricky Bhui, Siddhesh Lad, Himmat Singh, Rishabh Pant (WK), Deepak Hooda, Axar Patel, Rahul Chahar, Jayant Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Avesh Khan, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur.

