Duleep Trophy squads – Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik ruled out due to illness; Ravindra Jadeja withdrawn
Allrounder Ravindra Jadeja has also been released from the India B squad but there was no replacement name for him.
Gaurav, a 32-year-old fast bowler originally from Madhya Pradesh, switched to Puducherry before the last domestic season. He made headlines when he picked up 41 wickets in the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy, second on the overall list, in just seven games 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, he was 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 as well. Overall he has played 37 first-class matches for 141 wickets, since making his debut in the format in November 2012.
Saini, who played two Tests on the historic Australia tour of 2020-21, will get a chance to get considered again for the upcoming Test season with performances in the Duleep Trophy. He was part of two India A four-day games in the last season – two against England Lions at home and one in South Africa in December – but he failed to pick up more than one wicket in any of the four innings he bowled in.
Nitish Kumar Reddy’s participation will continue to be subject to fitness, a BCCI release stated, as he is recovering from 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 six zones – North, South, East, West, Central and North-East – the Duleep Trophy will have only four teams this time. Since the second round will clash with the home Tests against Bangladesh starting September 19, the players who will be picked for the Test series will be replaced in the Duleep Trophy.
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
