IND vs BAN: 3 batters to watch out for in the Duleep Trophy 2024

The Duleep Trophy 2024 season is set to get underway and many of the star players from the current Indian cricket team will be featuring in the red-ball tournament. As many as four sides, Team A, Team B, Team C and Team D will be fighting the battle in the upcoming competition. Shubman Gill will be captaining the Team A while senior opening batsman Abhimanyu Easwaran will lead the Team B. On the other hand, the duo of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shreyas Iyer will captain Team C and Team D respectively. In this blog post, check out the top 3 batters who are very much likely to make a comeback for the upcoming India vs Bangladesh two-match Test series.  

Duleep Trophy 2024 squads

Team A: Shubman Gill (C), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat.

Team B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK).

Team C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Umran Malik, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (WK), Sandeep Warrier.

Team D: Shreyas lyer (C), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (WK), Saurabh Kumar.

3 batters to watch out for in the Duleep Trophy

1. Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer last played for India in the longest format of the game during the five-match Test series against England at home earlier this year. After featuring in the first two Test matches, the right-handed batsman was ruled out from the rest of the series due to injury. He then made a comeback during the Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) season where he captained the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) towards their third title victory. Incidentally, Iyer made a fantastic century on his Test debut against New Zealand at home in 2021. However, he has not been in the best of forms during recent times especially in Test cricket. While talking about his overall numbers, Shreyas has scored a total of 811 runs from as many as 14 Test matches at an average of 36.86 that includes five half-centuries and one hundred. He will definitely be eyeing to feature in the India squad for the upcoming IND vs BAN two-match Test series through brilliant performance in the Duleep Trophy. 

2. Sarfaraz Khan

The national selectors finally rewarded young batter Sarfaraz Khan for his hard work in the domestic circuit as he was selected for the home Test matches against England earlier this year. He went on to smash as many as three half-centuries in the last three Tests against English team. However, it was a sudden injury to KL Rahul after which Sarfaraz earned his maiden call-up and now he has an average of 50 in the longest format of the game. The right-handed batter will have a great opportunity in the upcoming Duleep Trophy to showcase his talent and then confirm his place in the squad for the India vs Bangladesh home Test match series. 

3. Suryakumar Yadav

India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav has played just a single Test match that took place at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium against Australia during the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023. However, he managed to score just 8 runs and did not get a game in the rest of the Test series. Interestingly, Suryakumar has an excellent first-class record while playing for Mumbai. The swashbuckling right-handed batsman has notched up 5628 runs from 82 first-class matches that consists of 29 half-centuries and 14 hundreds. Thus, Suryakumar Yadav will also be looking forward to make a comeback into the Indian Test team through amazing performances in the Duleep Trophy.