Duleep Trophy: Domestic squads name replacements as major players turn to IND vs BAN preparations

The red-ball season will finally commence on September 19 for India with the first match of the Bangladesh Tour of India. The upcoming home Test series will be India’s first red-ball assignment after the England series in January 2024. With the WTC Final slated for June 2025, all the forthcoming Test series hold significant importance for the teams. India, currently atop the WTC standings, has a chance to cement its position in the final with a triumph in their home assignments against Bangladesh and New Zealand. However, while the Bangladesh series lies ahead, the Indian setup is currently engaged in the domestic tournament, the Duleep Trophy.

The domestic tournament, consisting of four teams, started on September 5 with initial round of 2 matches. However, with the second round scheduled for September 12, many major players will withdraw from the tournament as part of the India squad for the Bangladesh series. Shubman Gill, who captained India A in the series opener, has been replaced by Mayank Agarwal as the skipper.

Sarfaraz Khan stays back as Duleep Trophy squads name replacements for the players selected for Ind vs Ban

With the Bangladesh series starting on September 19, the Indian squad will start its training with a preparatory camp in Chennai on September 12. Thus, players who have been selected in the squad for the series against Bangladesh will leave their respective domestic sides to start the training for the international assignment. The latest update from the team proceedings has informed that, barring Sarfaraz Khan, every player in the Indian squad for the Bangladesh Test will be withdrawn ahead of the next set of matches.

Sarfaraz Khan is playing for India B under the leadership of Abhimanyu Easwaran in the Duleep Trophy. The middle-order batter scored a quickfire 46 off 36 in the second innings of the match where his younger brother Musheer Khan took the ‘Player of the Match’ accolade. Now, Sarfaraz will continue in the domestic series for the second match, which is scheduled to start from September 12. Sarfaraz Khan debuted for India earlier this year against England when KL Rahul was ruled out of the series due to a tendon injury. The 26-year-old hit three half-centuries in the three innings he played in his debut series for India. Now, while he has been in the India squad for the first Test against Bangladesh, it looks unlikely for the batter to make it into the Playing XI.

Major exits make way for Rinku Singh in the Duleep Trophy

The exit of players for the IND vs BAN Tests has made way for the initially ignored players to take the field for the Duleep Trophy. Rinku Singh, who was not named in the initial picks for the red-ball series, has now been called up. Moreover, India B has called Suyash Prabhudesai and Himanshu Mantri along with Rinku to compensate for the exit of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, and Yash Dayal.

India A, meanwhile, has named Pratham Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Shaik Rasheed, Shams Mulani, and Pulkit Narang to fill the void created by the exit of Dhruv Jurel, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, along with Shubman Gill. Moreover, pacer Vidhwath Kaverappa is likely to move from India A to India D ahead of the second match. The captaincy of the team, meanwhile, has been handed to Mayank Agarwal as Gill tracks his way to the Indian squad.

The changes in India C and India D are less compared to the other two teams. Interestingly, India C will face no transitions while India D will send Axar Patel away for national duty. Moreover, India D will feature another change as Tushar Deshpande has sustained an injury. The squad will seek the transfer of Kaverappa and Nishant Sindhu from India A squad to replace Patel and Deshpande.

With so many changes in the Duleep Trophy squads for the second round of matches, the availability of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav is still uncertain. Both the players endured injuries while playing in the Buchi Babu Trophy. Moreover, it’s likely for pacer Prasidh Krishna to join the India A squad. Krishna was not named in the initial picks as the pacer tended to his knee injury.

Updated Duleep Trophy squads for the second round

India A: Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat, Pratham Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Shaik Rasheed, Shams Mulani, Pulkit Narang

India B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (wk), Rinku Singh, Suyash Prabhudesai, Himanshu Mantri

India C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 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), Sandeep Warrier

India D: Shreyas Iyer (capt), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (wk), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (wk), Saurabh Kumar, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Nishant Sindhu