NEW DELHI: When the Duleep Trophy opens throughout Bengaluru and Anantapur on Thursday, it will serve as a prelude to a key Test season. While the national selectors will be eagerly monitoring Rishabh Pant’s red-ball comeback, they will also be looking for good backup options to frontline stars.
Pant hasn’t participated in a longer-lasting match since making his comeback to white-ball events following that terrifying vehicle accident.He played his last red-ball match in December 2022, against Bangladesh, as per PTI.
He will now play for Team B, captained by Abhimanyu Easwaran, against Team A, led by Shubman Gill, in the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Although his performances in the shorter formats were satisfying, the four-day competition presents him with a different kind of challenge: batting and fielding for an arbitrary amount of overs.
Pant is Team B’s chosen stumper, and it’s clear that the selection panel led by Ajit Agarkar plans to examine him closely in his capacity as a wicketkeeper-batter during a season that will conclude in the World Test Championship Final at the Lord’s in June.
However, that only makes up a small portion of the issue because there are other deserving candidates for the wicketkeeper-batter position.
Dhruv Jurel (Team A) is the clear leader after an outstanding debut series against England earlier this year.
Then there is Ishan Kishan, who will represent Team D at Anantapur under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer.
Even though he is a long shot, Kishan will be keen to use the Duleep Trophy as a springboard to make his case for a comeback to India following a series of unfortunate events that cost him the BCCI central contract for the current cycle.
Along with Gill at No. 3, the return of veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the Bangladesh series will eat up two batting spots.
As a result, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Sarfaraz Khan-who dazzled everyone with a fantastic Test debut against England-will compete to take the middle-order spot that is open.
Rahul, who is a pure batter for Team A, and Shreyas must perform well in the Duleep Trophy since they were absent from a significant portion of the home matches against England due to injuries sustained by the former and the latter for his dismissal in the second Test in Visakhapatnam.
Bowling back-up
For a time now, India has benefited well from the combination of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Mohammed Shami in Test cricket; but, it is not a good idea to go into a lengthy season without enough backup options.
Particularly considering that Shami, whose most recent competitive appearance was in the 2023 50-over World Cup final, is still recovering from surgery, while Siraj is unwell and will miss the first round of the Duleep Trophy.
The Bengal pair of Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep, who both made impressive debuts in the traditional format, as well as Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Vidwath Kaverappa, Vysakh Vijayakumar, and Harshit Rana, will be closely watched by the selectors.
Although the spin has a slightly different landscape, the pace department still requires some serious solutions.
Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, who was cut from Team B, and Ravichandran Ashwin make up a potent Indian spin unit.
Although there isn’t an urgent need for the support cast, the selectors want to be prepared with an immediate supply in case something unexpected happens.
In that regard, spinners like Saurabh Kumar, Washington Sundar, who is also a good hitter, and R Sai Kishore, who took the most wickets in the last Ranji season with 53, will be aiming to be on the five wise men’s radar.
Dark horses
Many peripheral players have shown potential at different levels and would like to boost their careers even more.
Devdutt Padikkal of Karnataka had a fantastic Ranji season in 2023-24, earning him a debut in a Test match at Dharamsala against England.
A steady player in the local arena, Baba Indrajith of Tamil Nadu demonstrated his abilities once more by amassing 767 runs in the most recent Ranji season. Sarfaraz’s younger brother, Musheer Khan, advanced to Mumbai’s First-Class cricket after dominating the Under-19 circuit.
With a century for Surrey in English county cricket, B Sai Sudharsan of Tamil Nadu, who made his white-ball debut for India, has also demonstrated early preparation for red-ball cricket. He will compete for Ruturaj Gaikwad’s Team C.
Squads:
India A: Shubman Gill (C), 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 (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy (subject to fitness), Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK)
India C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Gaurav Yadav, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (WK), Sandeep Warrier
India 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
Pant hasn’t participated in a longer-lasting match since making his comeback to white-ball events following that terrifying vehicle accident.He played his last red-ball match in December 2022, against Bangladesh, as per PTI.
He will now play for Team B, captained by Abhimanyu Easwaran, against Team A, led by Shubman Gill, in the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Although his performances in the shorter formats were satisfying, the four-day competition presents him with a different kind of challenge: batting and fielding for an arbitrary amount of overs.
Pant is Team B’s chosen stumper, and it’s clear that the selection panel led by Ajit Agarkar plans to examine him closely in his capacity as a wicketkeeper-batter during a season that will conclude in the World Test Championship Final at the Lord’s in June.
However, that only makes up a small portion of the issue because there are other deserving candidates for the wicketkeeper-batter position.
Dhruv Jurel (Team A) is the clear leader after an outstanding debut series against England earlier this year.
Then there is Ishan Kishan, who will represent Team D at Anantapur under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer.
Even though he is a long shot, Kishan will be keen to use the Duleep Trophy as a springboard to make his case for a comeback to India following a series of unfortunate events that cost him the BCCI central contract for the current cycle.
Along with Gill at No. 3, the return of veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the Bangladesh series will eat up two batting spots.
As a result, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Sarfaraz Khan-who dazzled everyone with a fantastic Test debut against England-will compete to take the middle-order spot that is open.
Rahul, who is a pure batter for Team A, and Shreyas must perform well in the Duleep Trophy since they were absent from a significant portion of the home matches against England due to injuries sustained by the former and the latter for his dismissal in the second Test in Visakhapatnam.
Bowling back-up
For a time now, India has benefited well from the combination of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Mohammed Shami in Test cricket; but, it is not a good idea to go into a lengthy season without enough backup options.
Particularly considering that Shami, whose most recent competitive appearance was in the 2023 50-over World Cup final, is still recovering from surgery, while Siraj is unwell and will miss the first round of the Duleep Trophy.
The Bengal pair of Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep, who both made impressive debuts in the traditional format, as well as Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Vidwath Kaverappa, Vysakh Vijayakumar, and Harshit Rana, will be closely watched by the selectors.
Although the spin has a slightly different landscape, the pace department still requires some serious solutions.
Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, who was cut from Team B, and Ravichandran Ashwin make up a potent Indian spin unit.
Although there isn’t an urgent need for the support cast, the selectors want to be prepared with an immediate supply in case something unexpected happens.
In that regard, spinners like Saurabh Kumar, Washington Sundar, who is also a good hitter, and R Sai Kishore, who took the most wickets in the last Ranji season with 53, will be aiming to be on the five wise men’s radar.
Dark horses
Many peripheral players have shown potential at different levels and would like to boost their careers even more.
Devdutt Padikkal of Karnataka had a fantastic Ranji season in 2023-24, earning him a debut in a Test match at Dharamsala against England.
A steady player in the local arena, Baba Indrajith of Tamil Nadu demonstrated his abilities once more by amassing 767 runs in the most recent Ranji season. Sarfaraz’s younger brother, Musheer Khan, advanced to Mumbai’s First-Class cricket after dominating the Under-19 circuit.
With a century for Surrey in English county cricket, B Sai Sudharsan of Tamil Nadu, who made his white-ball debut for India, has also demonstrated early preparation for red-ball cricket. He will compete for Ruturaj Gaikwad’s Team C.
Squads:
India A: Shubman Gill (C), 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 (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy (subject to fitness), Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK)
India C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Gaurav Yadav, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (WK), Sandeep Warrier
India 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
