Mohammed Siraj and Umran Malik have been ruled out of the first round of the upcoming Duleep Trophy due to illness, as confirmed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in a statement on Tuesday, August 27. Neither player is expected to recover in time for the start of the competition.
In a surprising move, the BCCI also announced that Ravindra Jadeja has been released from Team B’s squad, although no reason was provided for his exclusion.
To fill the gaps left by Siraj and Malik, the BCCI has named Navdeep Saini as Siraj’s replacement in Team B, while Gaurav Yadav will step in for Malik in Team C. The participation of Nitish Reddy, another member of Team B, remains uncertain due to fitness concerns. Nitish, who was recently selected for the India squad for the Zimbabwe series, had to withdraw because of a sports hernia.
The Duleep Trophy is set to commence on September 5. Team A will compete against Team B at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, while Team C will face off against Team D at the Rural Development Trust Stadium in Anantapur. The teams will be led by captains Shubman Gill (Team A), Abhimanyu Easwaran (Team B), Ruturaj Gaikwad (Team C), and Shreyas Iyer (Team D).
Revised Squads for the First Round of the Duleep Trophy:
India A: Shubman Gill (C), 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 (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (WK), Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK).
India C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), 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 (C), 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.
The tournament promises intense competition as the teams battle it out for top honours, with several rising stars ready to make their mark.