With eye on Bangladesh Tests, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli likely to feature in Duleep Trophy

India captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are likely to be part of star studded Duleep Trophy squads that will be picked by the senior selection committee of the BCCI. With the Test series against Bangladesh coming up, the senior selection committee wants all the players available for the Duleep Trophy which will be played in a new format this season beginning September 5.

The Indian Express understands that Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Surykumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav have been asked to play in the Duleep Trophy. However, ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah won’t be playing the tournament as he has been given a prolonged rest period. The selectors are also set to have a discussion on his inclusion for the two Tests against Bangladesh as India have a gruelling 10 Tests line-up in the next four months including 5 in Australia. With the pitches for Bangladesh series expected to spin friendly and Mohammed Shami closing in on return, Bumrah may be rested for the series.

With the zonal format of the Duleep Trophy done away, Ajit Agarkar’s panel will pick the four squads — India A, India B, India C and India D — set to feature in the tournament.

The Duleep Trophy is scheduled to be played in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh. With the venue not connected by air transport and with the star players agreeing to turn up, the BCCI is now planning to keep one round at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

The six matches of Duleep Trophy will begin on September 5 and end on September 24 while the first Test between India vs Bangladesh will be played in Chennai from September 19.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are likely to play in the DUleep Trophy.

It is not clear whether Rohit and Kohli will be playing the Duleep Trophy opener on September 5 or the second round that starts on September 12. It is understood that the BCCI is also planning a short camp in Chennai before the Test series and if that materialises, then the stars will feature in the first round of the Duleep Trophy.

A few months ago BCCI secretary Jay Shah had stated that all national players will have to make themselves available for domestic cricket barring top Indian cricketers like Rohit, Kohli and Bumrah. Players like Suryakumar and Sarfaraz Khan will be taking part in Buchi Babu invitational tournament to be played in Tamil Nadu from August 15.

Iyer-Kishan to be included

Meanwhile, the selection committee is likely to pick Ishan Kishan for the Duleep Trophy game. It is learnt that the selection committee wants Kishan to resume red ball cricket if he wants to be back in contention for the Indian team. Ishan and Shreyas Iyer were dropped from the BCCI’s annual contract list after they failed to play the Ranji Trophy despite the selection committee asking them to do so last season. Iyer, despite playing two Ranji Trophy games, was dropped from contract list, whereas Kishan snubbed BCCI’s warning and trained separately in Vadodara. Iyer made his way back to the national side during the recently concluded ODIs in Sri Lanka and one more opportunity has been thrown at Kishan to make a comeback.

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No Pujara-Rahane

Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane won’t be finding a place in any Duleep Trophy team as the national selection committee has made up their mind to move on from these two old stalwarts. Rahane led Mumbai Ranji Trophy side to their 42nd Ranji Trophy title last season but his performance with the bat was not upto the mark. While Pujara was amongst runs, the selection committee feels that youngsters like Sarfaraz, Dhruv Jurel have shown a great potential to fill their place.

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