Rishabh Pant’s return to the red ball will be closely watched, but the national selectors will also look for suitable backup options for the frontline stars during the Duleep Trophy, the start of a crucial Test season, which begins in Bengaluru and Anantapur on Thursday. Pant, who returned to the white-ball format after that horrific car accident, is yet to play long-term matches. His last red-ball match was against Bangladesh in December 2022. Now, he will play for Abhimanyu Easwaran-led Team B against Shubman Gill-led Team A at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
His performances in the shorter formats have been satisfactory, but this four-day tournament will present him with a unique challenge – batting and wicketkeeping for an unscheduled number of overs.
Pant is the designated stumper in Team B, and it is clear that the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee intends to take a deep look at his role as a wicketkeeper-batsman in the season that concludes with the World Test Championship final at Lord’s in June next year.
But this is just one piece of the puzzle as there are other worthy contenders for the wicketkeeper-batsman spot.
The frontrunner is Dhruv Jurel (Team A), who impressed in his debut series against England earlier this year.
Then there is Ishan Kishan, who will play for Team D, led by Shreyas Iyer in Anantapur.
Kishan, though has not been in contention to play for India for a long time, would want to use the Duleep Trophy to stake his claim for a comeback to India after some unsavoury incidents in the current cycle cost him the BCCI central contract.
The return of veterans Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the Bangladesh series will leave two spots vacant with Gill batting at number three.
Hence, there will be competition between KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, who impressed everyone with his brilliant Test debut against England, to fill the available middle order spot.
It is important for Rahul, who is in Team A as a pure batsman, and Shreyas to do well in the Duleep Trophy as they missed a large chunk of the home matches against England – Rahul due to injury and Shreyas ruled out after the second Test in Visakhapatnam.
Bowling back-up
The trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami have helped India immensely in Test matches, but it would not be wise to enter a long Test season without enough options.
This is because Siraj will miss the first round of the Duleep Trophy due to illness and Shami, whose last competitive match was the 2023 50-over World Cup final, is still recovering after surgery.
The selectors will be keeping an eye on Bengal’s Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep, both of whom have made impressive starts in the traditional format, as well as Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Khaleel Ahmed, Vidwath Kavarappa, Vaisakh Vijaykumar and Harshit Rana.
While the fast bowling department needs some immediate solutions, the situation in the spin department is a little different.
Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja (who was released from Team B), Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel form a strong Indian spin unit.
Though there is no immediate demand for supporting artistes, the selectors would like to have an immediate supply ready for any emergency.
In this context, spinners like Washington Sundar, who is also a capable batsman, R Sai Kishore, who was the highest wicket-taker in the last Ranji season with 53 wickets, Manav Suthar and Saurabh Kumar would be hoping to catch the eye of these five intelligent players.
Black horses
There are many players who want to take their career further after showing talent at various levels.
Karnataka’s Devdutt Padikal had a stellar Ranji season in 2023-24, which earned him a Test debut against England in Dharamsala.
Tamil Nadu’s Baba Indrajith has been consistently performing well in domestic cricket and once again showcased his talent by scoring 767 runs in the last Ranji season. Sarfaraz’s younger brother Mushir Khan easily entered first-class cricket for Mumbai after performing well in Under-19 cricket.
Tamil Nadu’s B Sai Sudharsan, who made his white-ball debut for India, has also indicated his readiness for red-ball cricket by scoring a century for Surrey in English county cricket. He will play for Team C led by Ruturaj Gaikwad.
Teams:
India A: Shubman Gill (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), KL Rahul, Tilak Verma, Shivam Dubey, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khalil Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidawath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat.
India B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Mushir 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 (captain), Sai Sudarshan, Rajat Patidar, Abhishek Porel (wicketkeeper), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indrajit, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Gaurav Yadav, Vishak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (wicketkeeper), Sandeep Warrier.
India D: Shreyas Lyer (captain), Atharva Tayde, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thackeray, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Saurabh Kumar.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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