New Delhi. Senior star players like captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and R Ashwin have been exempted from playing in the Duleep Trophy starting September 5 in Bengaluru, while the national selectors have kept a good balance between domestic performers and potential talents while selecting four teams for the competition.
International stars like Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj will be seen playing in this tournament. T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav has also been selected, who played a Test against Australia in 2023. Apart from Suryakumar, others have confirmed their place in the team. Wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, a member of India’s T20 World Cup winning team, will also play in this tournament. This will be his first red-ball tournament after returning from a car accident in 2022.
Another wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan will also play in it, who was dropped from the BCCI’s central contracted list last season for giving priority to the Indian Premier League and not playing in the Ranji Trophy tournament. Apart from Sarfaraz Khan and Dhruv Jurel, who played an important role in India’s home series against England, wicketkeeper Aryan Juyal and Abhishek Porel will also be included in the teams.
Indian players had to play only one match, so Kohli, Rohit, Bumrah and Ashwin were exempted. PTI reported about this exemption on July 16. Suryakumar is part of the Rituraj Gaikwad-led Team C in the tournament, which also includes two young fast bowlers Anshul Khamboj and Himanshu Chauhan.
Mohammed Siraj and Jadeja will be part of Team B which also includes Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Washington Sundar while Shubman Gill will lead Team A which also has Kuldeep, KL Rahul, Shivam Dubey and Riyan Parag. Apart from Parag, Goalpara-born Akash Sengupta is the other cricketer from Assam playing in the tournament. He is part of Team D which will be led by Shreyas Iyer and will also include Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh among others.
Fast bowler Mayank Yadav, who is recovering from a lower abdominal injury, has not yet become fit and will be out of this tournament. Nitish Kumar Reddy’s participation also depends on his fitness. India has to play two Test matches against Bangladesh, the first of which will start in Chennai from September 19 and the second in Kanpur from September 27.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah said in a release, “The players who will be selected for the Indian team for the home Test series against Bangladesh will be replaced by others in the Duleep Trophy.” The Duleep Trophy was earlier scheduled to start with two first round matches in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh from September 5, but now one of these matches is being held at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here due to ‘logistic’ problems.
The four teams for the first round of the tournament are as follows:
Team A:
Shubman Gill (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, KL Rahul, Tilak Verma, Shivam Dubey, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khalil Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwat Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shashvat Rawat.
Team B:
Abhimanyu Easwaran (captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Mushir Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (wicketkeeper).
Team C:
Ruturaj Gaikwad (captain), Sai Sudarshan, Rajat Patidar, Abhishek Porel (wicketkeeper), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indrajit, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Umran Malik, Vishak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (wicketkeeper), Sandeep Warrier.
Team D:
Shreyas Lyer (captain), Atharva Tayde, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thackeray, Risht Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Saurabh Kumar.