Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Gill to play in Duleep Trophy

New Delhi: K.L. Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Shubman Gill, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammed Siraj are some of the big names set to play in the first round of the Duleep Trophy, starting on September 5 in Bengaluru and Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh respectively.

In the Teams A, B, C and D squads selected by the Men’s Selection Committee for the tournament marking the start of the red-ball season, instead of the original zonal format, senior players like captain Rohit Sharma, talismanic batter Virat Kohli, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and fast-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah haven’t been included, to keep them fresh for a gruelling season.

There is also no place for fast-bowler Mohammed Shami, who is recuperating from a heel injury that needed surgical intervention earlier this year and is currently at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. The aspects India will be keeping an eye on are how Rahul and Pant fare in the red-ball tournament.

Rahul missed the rest of India’s Tests against England after a quadriceps injury in the opening game at Hyderabad. He will be playing in Team ‘A’ under Shubman Gill’s leadership, alongside Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan.

Left-handed wicketkeeper-batter Pant is all set to play his first red-ball game since returning to cricketing action this year following a life-threatening car accident in December 2022. He will be playing for Team ‘B’, led by Bengal opener Abhimanyu Easwaran, and is placed with Siraj, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy (subject to fitness), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Yash Dayal and Mukesh Kumar.

Suryakumar, India’s new T20I captain, will be playing for Team ‘C’, to be captained by Ruturaj Gaikwad. Other prominent players include Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Umran Malik, Abishek Porel, Baba Indrajith, Manav Suthar, and Vyshak Vijaykumar.

Iyer, who missed out on a central contract this year after missing a few Ranji Trophy matches in the previous season, has been named captain of Team ‘D’. He will be leading a team that features Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan, Ricky Bhui, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, KS Bharat and Saurabh Kumar.

BCCI Secretary Jay Shah said players who will be selected to represent India for 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 till January - five at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand, followed by five games in Australia. IANS

Also Read: Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025: Rishabh Pant to stay with Delhi Capitals

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