Star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was on Tuesday released from the India B squad for the first round of the Duleep Trophy with the BCCI releasing a revised list of squads after pace bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Umran Malik were ruled out because of illness.
Navdeep Saini has replaced Siraj in the India B squad, while Gaurav Yadav has been named in place of Malik in the India C squad. Meanwhile, the cricket board hasn’t given any reason for Jadeja’s release nor named any replacement for him.
The 32-year-old Gaurav, who switched from Madhya Pradesh to Puducherry before the last domestic season, grabbed the limelight when he picked up 41 wickets in the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy, second on the overall list, in just 11 bowling innings at an average of 14.58, with five five-wicket hauls and a 10-wicket match haul to stun Delhi in the opening round.
Before that, too, the pacer has been a consistent wicket-taker with the red ball, with a tally of 24 in 2022-23, 23 in 2021-22, and 23 in 2019-20. Overall, he has played 37 first-class matches for 141 wickets since making his debut in the format in November 2012.
Meanwhile, it could be a new lease of life ahead of the Test season for Haryana paceman Saini, who played two Tests on India’s tour of Australia in 2020-21 but has faded away due to frequent injuries. He was a part of two India A four-day games last season – one against England Lions at home and one in South Africa in December – but failed to pick up more than one wicket in any of the four innings he bowled in.
The BCCI also maintained that all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy’s participation in the tournament will be subject to fitness, as he continues to recover after a sports hernia surgery.
The first round of the Duleep Trophy will be played simultaneously in Anantapur and Bengaluru from September 5.
Originally a zonal competition featuring teams from five (and later six) zones, the format of the Duleep Trophy has changed often in the past few seasons, and will be a four-team contest this time. Since the second round will clash with the home Test series against Bangladesh starting September 19, the players who are picked for the Tests will be replaced.
Revised squads for Duleep Trophy first round
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, 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, 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), 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), Saurabh Kumar