Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah will not be taking part in India’s season-opening Duleep Trophy, which is scheduled to begin on September 5. The teams for the four-team competition will be selected later this month by the panel led by Ajit Agarkar. However, most other centrally-contracted players are expected to feature in the tournament.
Among the players to watch are KL Rahul, who missed four of the five England Tests earlier this year due to injury and Rishabh Pant, who could be playing his first red-ball game since recovering from a tragic car accident in December 2022.
Other specialist batters are likely to be picked, including Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Suryakumar Yadav and Rajat Patidar.
There is also a possibility that Mohammed Shami, who is nearing a full-fitness level, will be asked to play in one of the matches to prove his match fitness. Shami is currently in the final stages of rehab at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru and has been gradually increasing his bowling workload over the past week.
With India scheduled to play 10 Tests over the next five months—five at home and five in Australia—senior players will be given an extended break before the first of these assignments, a two-Test series against Bangladesh starting in Chennai on September 19.
One of the two Duleep Trophy games scheduled to start on September 5 is likely to be moved from Anantapur to Bengaluru due to logistical reasons. The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has been informally approached to host the fixture.
The inclusion of several centrally-contracted players in the competition aligns with the BCCI’s push to prioritise domestic cricket. Earlier, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah had issued a letter stating that prioritising the IPL over domestic cricket would lead to “severe implications,” which resulted in Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan losing their central contracts after missing some Ranji Trophy games just before the IPL.
The Duleep Trophy, originally a zonal competition, was restructured this season based on recommendations from a BCCI working group that included former head coach Rahul Dravid, NCA chief VVS Laxman, Ajit Agarkar and BCCI general manager Abey Kuruvilla. The change aims to provide a wider pool of players, including those in the targeted group, with enough opportunities ahead of India’s Test season. The four-team tournament will run until September 22, with each team playing the other three in a round-robin format. The team at the top of the standings will be declared the winner.
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