With only two days to go for the Duleep Trophy, the squads of all four teams are still seeing minor changes due to player injuries and last-minute confirmations. Just after it was reportedly confirmed that India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav was ruled out of the opening round of the Duleep Trophy due to an injury sustained during the Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament, it has come to light that all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy has been declared fit to take part in the prestigious tournament.
With a Test recall on the radar, Suryakumar was supposed to turn up for the India C side led by Ruturaj Gaikwad in the first-round match of the Duleep Trophy against Shreyas Iyer’s India D in Anantapur on September 5. But the swashbuckling right-hander will now spend the next few days at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru, nursing a hand injury he suffered while fielding in a Buchi Babu match against TNCA XI in Coimbatore.
Surya did not bat in the second innings as a precautionary measure, keeping his participation in the Duleep Trophy in mind, but the injury appears to be a bit more serious than initially perceived. The NCA medical team has advised him to rest.
He was probably not in line to make the squad for the two-match Test series against Bangladesh but a solid start to the Duleep Trophy could have given a major push to Surya’s aspirations of a Test comeback. The T20I maestro has been out of India’s red-ball squad since making his debut against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy last year.
The Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee’s role here is an interesting thing to look forward to. Will they spring into action to name a last-minute replacement for Surya? Or will they wait for him to get fit for the next fixture? Surya is not the only cricketer India C squad who has fallen prey to an injury. Fast bowler Umran Malik was ruled out with an injury but was replaced by Gaurav Yadav in the squad.
India C and India B – Ravindra Jadeja was released from the India B squad without an official reason – have lost two India stars in the lead-up to the Duleep Trophy, for whom replacements haven’t been named yet. This has left these two teams with the least number of players (14) available in the squad.
Interestingly, the India A squad led by Shubman Gill has the most number of players (16) to choose from while India D has 15 members in their squad. Having an unequal number of players in the squad before a domestic tournament is not happening for the first time in Indian cricket. There have been instances during the Challenger Series, but it should not be a surprise to anyone if the current selection committee add players to the India B and India C squads.
The good news for the India B side amid all this is the fitness of Nitish Kumar Reddy. According to ESPNCricinfo, he has been declared fit by the NCA. His inclusion was subject to fitness after he was diagnosed with a groin injury that led to his withdrawal from India’s T20I squad to Zimbabwe in July.
Revised squads for Duleep Trophy first round
India A: Shubman Gill (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel (wk), KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat.
India B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (wk)
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, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (wk), Saurabh Kumar
