New Delhi, India
Indian seamers Mohammed Siraj and Umran Malik got ruled out of the first round of the upcoming Duleep Trophy 2024 due to illness, while ace all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was released from the squad. Navdeep Saini replaces Siraj in the India B squad, and Gaurav Yadav has been roped in for Malik in the India C squad. No official announcement is made on Jadeja's absence, and no replacement is named either.
Gaurav, a 32-year-old pacer from Madhya Pradesh, switched to Puducherry before the last domestic season. He made headlines by picking 41 wickets in the 2023-24 season in just 11 innings, averaging 14.58, including five five-fors and a ten-wicket haul.
ALSO READ: BCCI name Harmanpreet Kaur-led star-studded squad for Women’s T20 World Cup 2024
Meanwhile, injury-prone pacer Saini, who last represented India during the away Border-Gavaskar Trophy three years ago, has returned to press his case for an India call-up. The right-arm seamer was part of two India A four-day games last season – one against England and one against South Africa last December.
Besides, Nitish Kumar Reddy’s selection is subject to his fitness, as the BCCI mentioned while announcing squads. The emerging all-rounder continues to recover from the sports hernia surgery.
The first round of the upcoming Duleep Trophy will be played simultaneously from September 5 in Bengaluru and Anantapur.
Revised Duleep Trophy 2024 squads –
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 and Shaswat Rawat
India B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), 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 and N Jagadeesan (wk)
India C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), 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) and 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) and Saurabh Kumar
(With inputs from agencies)