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SPORTS AUGUST 23, 2024 | The Indian Eye 47

DOMESTIC CRICKET

Top stars and emerging players

to contest as red-ball season begins

India’s key players of red-ball cricket, including captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli,

Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah, will not feature in the competition

OUR BUREAU Young batter Tilak Varma has also been in-
cluded in the tournament. He suffered a wrist inju-
Mumbai
ry towards the end of Indian Premier League (IPL)
he Board of Control for Cricket in India 2024.
(BCCI) Secretary Jay Shah said on Thursday Youngster Musheer Khan, who starred for In-
Tthat star batters Rohit and Virat Kohli should dia in the Under-19 World Cup, has been reward-
not be insisted on playing Duleep Trophy since ex- ed for his consistency. The 19-year-old all-rounder
posing them more will have a risk of injuries. enjoyed a breakout season after lifting the Ranji
The Duleep Trophy, which marks the begin- Trophy with Mumbai earlier this year. Musheer
ning of red-ball cricket in the domestic season, will will look to make his mark after being included in
feature top India stars from the international cir- the Duleep Trophy.
cuit and emerging talents competing at the highest Young all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy has
level. The tournament is set to begin on Septem- also been included in the first round of the tour-
ber 5, 2024, in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh and M nament, but his participation remains subject to
Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. fitness.
Though BCCI is encouraging top Indian play- Players who will be selected to represent India
ers and regulars to take part in domestic cricket for the home Test series against Bangladesh will be
more regularly, Shah said that the two cricketing replaced in the Duleep Trophy. India will kick off
icons should not be insisted on playing in the tour- the Test series against Bangladesh on September
nament to reduce the chance of them sustaining 19 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
injuries. He also noted how in Australia and En- The four squads for the first round of the tour-
gland, every international player does not play do- nament:
mestic cricket. TEAM A
In a media interaction with Mumbai, as quot-
ed by Wisden, Shah said, “We should not insist on Shubman Gill (C), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag,
players like Rohit and Virat to play in the Duleep Dhruv Jurel, KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube,
Trophy. They will risk injury. If you have noticed, in Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh
Australia and England, every international player Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaver-
does not play domestic cricket. We have to treat appa, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat.
the players with respect.” TEAM B
Notably, India’s key players of red-ball cricket,
including captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravi- Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz
chandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah, will not fea- Khan, Rishabh Pant, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar
ture in the competition. Reddy*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd
Rohit’s last appearance in the tournament was Siraj, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R
back in 2016 while for Virat it was back in 2010, Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK).
when he was yet to feature in a Test for India. TEAM C
He also said that other notable names will be in-
volved in domestic cricket during the coming days, Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar,
notably Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer who lost Abishek Porel (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indra-
their BCCI central contracts due to their alleged jith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Umran Malik,
lack of participation in domestic red-ball cricket. Virat Kohli Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu
“Apart from them, everyone else is playing. Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (WK),
You should appreciate that. One must note that man Gill and many more players are set to feature Sandeep Warrier.
Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer are playing in the in the Duleep Trophy 2024-25 season. TEAM D
Buchi Babu tournament,” added Shah. Notably, pacer Prasidh Krishna will make his
The Buchi Babu tournament, which is start- comeback after serving a lengthy period on the Shreyas lyer (C), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt
ing on Thursday will see the participation from sidelines due to injury. Since 2019, Krishan’s career Padikkal, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ricky Bhui, Saransh
Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, and Suryakumar Ya- has been plagued by injuries. He sustained a stress Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare,
dav representing their state teams. fracture on his left leg in 2019, a stress fracture of Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta,
Star India batters Rishabh Pant, Kishan, Shub- the back in 2022, and a quadriceps injury in 2024. KS Bharat (WK), Saurabh Kumar.

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