Shreyas Iyer. Photo: Sportzpics for BCCI
Fringe players like Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube along with some experienced names who have been overlooked by the national selectors will try to grab their attention when the second round of the Duleep Trophy begins here on Thursday.
The star power at the season-opening red-ball event will be significantly reduced for the second round as Team India players will be released for a national camp ahead of the first Test against Bangladesh in Chennai from September 19.
Sarfaraz Khan is the only member of Team India who will be participating in the domestic competition.
In the absence of regular domestic players, the focus will be on players like Rinku, who was surprisingly not picked for the first round despite having an impressive first-class record. The energetic left-hander has also performed well for India in T20 cricket.
The addition of Shubman Gill to the national team has led to Mayank Agarwal captaining the India A unit. Having played his last Test in March 2022, Agarwal needs a lot of runs to get back into the national spotlight.
Off-spinner Prasidh Krishna, who missed the opening match of the Duleep Trophy due to not fully completing his rehabilitation from a left quadriceps tendon, has been named in the India A squad. With the tour of Australia on the horizon, the lanky player’s performance will be closely watched.
In India’s B team, captain Abhimanyu Easwaran will have to lead from the front after a forgettable performance in Bengaluru last week.
Sarfaraz, who made a successful Test debut against England earlier this year, was overshadowed by his brother Musheer in the opening game, the latter’s 181 leading India B to a fine win over India A.
The elder brother will be hoping for a big break before joining the national team in Chennai.
Washington Sundar also features in India’s B team and his all-round skills keep him in contention across all formats. Fast-pacer Mukesh Kumar, who was outplayed by Akash Deep in the first Test, will have something to prove.
India C openers Sai Sudharsan and Ruturaj Gaikwad will look to pile up runs to defend the role of the reserve opener in the India setup.
Left-handed spinner Manav Suthar will look to build on his match-winning performance against India D.
Rajat Patidar, who was dropped from the Indian squad after a disastrous debut series against England, will have to prove his hunger for runs with the red ball.
India D captain Shreyas Iyer is another player who has been out of the Test squad and only a mountain of runs can bring him back into the national squad.
The same goes for Devdutt Padikkal and Sanju Samson, who was a notable name missing from India D’s starting XI against India C.
Left-handed pacer Arshdeep Singh also needs to do a lot more to improve his red-ball credentials.
Squadrons:
Team India A: Mayank Agarwal (C), Riyan Parag, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat, Pratham Singh, Akshay Wadkar, SK Rasheed, Shams Mulani, Aaqib Khan.
India B Team: Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK), Suyash Prabhudessai, Rinku Singh, Himanshu Mantri (WK).
India C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (WK), B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Gaurav Yadav, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (WK) , Warrior Sandeep
India D-Team: Shreyas Lyer (C), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (WK), Saurabh Kumar, Sanju Samson ( WK), Nishant Sindhu, Vidwath Kaverappa.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: September 11, 2024 | 18:48 IS
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