India's 2024-25 domestic cricket season kicks off with the Duleep Trophy from September 5, with most of India's star players picked among the four squads that will compete in the tournament that is scheduled to conclude on September 22.
Besides the inclusion of India's international players, the selection committee has included a mix of the experienced domestic performers and emerging talent while granting exemptions to senior players such as captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Rohit and Kohli have only played three ODIs in Sri Lanka between the final of the T20 World Cup on June 28 and the last match of the series in Sri Lanka on August 7, which means the two stalwarts will go into the home Test series against Bangladesh with no red-ball match practice.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar says that it's not an ideal situation for India and the two seasoned pros ahead of an international assignment.
"The selectors have not picked skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the Duleep Trophy, so they will most likely go into the Bangladesh Test series without much match practice," Gavaskar wrote in his column for 'mid-day'.
The batting legend said Bumrah's exclusion is "understandable" considering his workload management and history of back injuries.
"While it’s understandable that somebody like Jasprit Bumrah with his delicate back needs to be handled with care, the batters could have done with some batting time out in the middle," said the former India opener.
Talking about batsmen, the likes of Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer have all been picked for the Duleep Trophy, besides wicketkeeper-batsmen Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant, who will make a return to red-ball cricket since his car accident in December 2022.
All-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, spinner Kuldeep Yadav and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj have also been picked.
"Once a player hits the mid-thirties in any sport, then regular competition will help him maintain the high standards he has set. When there’s a longish gap, then the muscle memory weakens somewhat and to get back to the high standards from earlier is not easy," Gavaskar opined.
India are scheduled to play two Tests against Bangladesh, with the first match starting on September 19 in Chennai and the second on September 27 in Kanpur. "The athletes who will be selected to represent India for the home Test series against Bangladesh will be replaced in the Duleep Trophy," BCCI secretary Jay Shah said in a release.
The four squads for the first round of the tournament:
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
