Indian pace batteries miss out on India's domestic season due to illness

After ending the 17-year title drought by winning the ICC Men's T20 World Cup trophy by defeating South Africa in the finals, the Indian team is now gearing up for the next hurdle: the ICC World Test Championship and the Champions Trophy, both scheduled for 2025. Before that, Rohit Sharma and his team will play a couple of Test matches against the top teams in the World Test Championship, as they currently sit at the top of the standings after defeating England in the home series 4-1. The Indian team has 74 points on the table, having secured 6 wins out of 9 games with a 68.52 PCT.

To gear up for such major events, the Indian players are ready to showcase their prowess in the upcoming domestic season, which will start on September 5th, 2024, with the Duleep Trophy. This tournament will be crucial for players, who are eyeing a place in India’s Test team squad for the upcoming home series against Bangladesh.

India’s star pace bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Umran Malik will be missing out on the first half of the domestic season due to illness. Siraj was part of India’s squad that won the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. However, after a few matches, he didn’t get a chance to play as he was replaced by left-arm bowler Arshdeep Singh, who opened the bowling attack for the Men in Blue alongside Jasprit Bumrah.

Despite his average performance, the star pacer was backed by the team management for the Sri Lanka series in which India faced defeat in the ODI series after winning the T20I series against the Lankan Lions.

Meanwhile, Umran Malik has just started his preparation to make a comeback in international cricket after suffering a hamstring injury in IPL 2024 while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad. The right-arm fast bowler was diagnosed with dengue before the start of the 2024 domestic season.

In place of these two bowlers, Navdeep Saini will replace Siraj in the Team B squad, while Gaurav Yadav has been named as Malik's replacement in Team C. The tournament gets underway on September 5. Team A will take on Team B at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru while Team C will face Team D at the Rural Development Trust Stadium in Anantapur.