The Duleep Trophy is set to begin on September 5 in Bengaluru and Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh. Some big names like KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Shubman Gill, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammed Siraj will be participating. However, senior players like captain Rohit Sharma, star batsman Virat Kohli, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah are not included in the squads. They are being rested to stay fresh for the upcoming busy season. There is also no place for Mohammed Shami, who is recovering from an injury and is currently at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru.
Focus on Rahul and Pant:
India will be closely watching how KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant perform in this red-ball tournament. Rahul was ruled out of the remaining Test matches against England due to a quadriceps injury but will be playing under Shubman Gill’s captaincy in Team A. This team also includes Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, and Avesh Khan.
Rishabh Pant, the left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman, is all set to play his first red-ball match after his return to cricket following a severe car accident in December 2022. He will be playing for Team B, led by Bengal’s opening batsman Abhimanyu Easwaran. This team also includes Siraj, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Mushir Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy (subject to fitness), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Yash Dayal, and Mukesh Kumar.
Other Key Players:
India’s new T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav will be playing for Team C, which will be captained by Ruturaj Gaikwad. Other key players in this team include Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Umran Malik, Abhishek Porel, Baba Indrajith, Manav Suthar, and Vyshak Vijaykumar. Shreyas Iyer, who missed out on a central contract this year after missing some Ranji Trophy matches last season, will lead Team D. His team includes Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan, Ricky Bhui, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, KS Bharat, and Saurabh Kumar.
Upcoming Series and Player Rotations:
BCCI Secretary Jay Shah mentioned that players who will represent India in the upcoming home Test series against Bangladesh, starting on September 19 in Chennai, will be replaced in the Duleep Trophy. India is set to play 10 Tests by January – five at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand, followed by five in Australia.
Duleep Trophy Round One Teams:
- Team A: Shubman Gill (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanuj Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shashwat Rawat.
- Team B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Mushir Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy (subject to participation), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Avasthi, N Jagadeesan (wicketkeeper).
- Team C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abhishek Porel (wicketkeeper), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Umran Malik, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Kamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (wicketkeeper), Sandeep Warrier.
- Team D: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakre, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Saurabh Kumar.
