Fast bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Umran Malik will miss the first round of the Duleep Trophy due to illness. Navdeep Saini replaces Siraj in the India B squad, and Gaurav Yadav steps in for Malik in the India C squad. Allrounder Ravindra Jadeja has also been withdrawn from the India B squad, with no replacement announced.
Gaurav Yadav, a 32-year-old fast bowler originally from Madhya Pradesh who switched to Puducherry before last season, has been impressive. He took 41 wickets in the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy, ranking second overall. His performances included five five-wicket hauls and a 10-wicket match haul. Gaurav has played 37 first-class matches and taken 141 wickets since his debut in November 2012.
Navdeep Saini, who featured in two Tests during India’s 2020-21 tour of Australia, will look to regain form and push for future Test selection through the Duleep Trophy. He had a challenging stint in India A matches last season, with limited success.
Nitish Kumar Reddy’s participation is uncertain due to ongoing recovery from sports hernia surgery, as stated by a BCCI release.
The first round of the Duleep Trophy will be held in Anantapur and Bengaluru from September 5. The competition, traditionally featuring six zonal teams, will now have just four. The second round will overlap with India’s home Tests against Bangladesh starting September 19, leading to potential replacements for players selected for the Test series.
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, Vidwa
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
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