Rishabh Pant’s return to the red ball will be closely monitored but the national selectors will also look for suitable back-up options for the front-line stars when the Duleep Trophy, which kicks off a crucial Test season, takes place in Bengaluru and Anantapur on Thursday. will begin. Pant, who returned to white-ball formats after the horrific car accident, is yet to play in a long-duration match. His last red-ball outing was against Bangladesh in December 2022. Now, he will play for Team B led by Abhimanyu Iswaran against Team A led by Shubman Gill at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

His outing in the short version was satisfactory, but this four-day tournament presents him with a unique challenge – batting and keeping ‘an unspecified number of overs.

Pant is the designated stumper in Team B, and it is clear that the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel intends to take a closer look at his role as a wicket-keeper batsman in a season that culminates in the World Test Championship final. will be with Lord’s next June.

But this is only one piece of the puzzle as there are other worthy contenders for the wicketkeeper-batsman spot.

Leading the way is Dhruv Jural (Team A), who was impressive in his debut series against England earlier this year.

Next is Ishan Kishan, who will play for Team D which is marshaled by Shreyas Iyer in Anantapur.

Kishan, though a long shot, will be eager to use the Dileep Trophy as a platform to stake his claim for India’s comeback after an unfortunate train of events has left him in the current cycle. CCI lost central contract.

The return of veteran Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the Bangladesh series will add two batting slots at No.3 alongside Gayle.

So, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, who impressed everyone with a superb Test debut against England, will be in the mix to populate the available middle-order spot.

It’s important for Rahul, who is in Team A as a pure batsman, and Shreyas to be good in the Duleep Trophy as he missed a large chunk of the home matches against England – previous injury. with and was dropped after the second test. In Visakhapatnam

Bowling backup

India have been well served in Tests by the troika of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj and Mohammad Shami for some time now, but it is unwise to enter a long Test season without adequate replacements.

More so because Siraj will miss the first round of the Duleep Trophy due to illness and Shami, whose last encounter was the 2023 50-over World Cup final, is still recovering from surgery.

The selectors will keep a close eye on the Bengal duo of Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep, who both made bright starts in the traditional format, along with Arsdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Khalil Ahmed, Vidut Kawarappa, Vishak Vijay Kumar and Harshit Rana.

While the peace department needs some immediate solutions, the scenario in Spin is somewhat different.

Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, who was released from Team B, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel form a strong Indian spin unit.

Although there is no pressing demand for the support cast, the selectors will want to be ready with a quick supply in case of an eventuality.

In this context, spinners like Washington Sundar, a capable batsman, RC Kishore, the top wicket-taker in the last Ranji season with 53 scalps, Manav Sathar and Saurabh Kumar will hopefully be on the radar of the five-wise. I will be .

Black horses

There are a large number of players who want to further their career after showing talent at various levels.

Karnataka’s Devdutt Padikal had a roaring Ranji season in 2023-24, making his Test debut against England in Dharamsala.

Tamil Nadu’s Baba Indrajith is a consistent home-grown performer and once again highlighted his talent with 767 runs in the last Ranji season, and Sarfaraz’s younger brother Mushir Khan has made first-class cricket for Mumbai after shining in the Under-19s. I graduated easily. Circuit

Tamil Nadu’s B Sai Sudharsan, who made his white-ball debut for India, has also given an early indication of his readiness for red-ball cricket with a century for Surrey in English county cricket. He will play for Team C under the leadership of Rituraj Gaikwad.

troops:

India A: Shibman Gill (C), Mayank Aggarwal, Ryan Prag, Dhruv Jural (WK), KL Rahul, Tilak Verma, Shivam Dubey, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Parsed Krishna, Khalil Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidut Kawarappa, Kumar Kshagra, Shaswat Rawat.

India B: Abhimanyu Iswaran (C), Yashvi 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: Rituraj Gaikwad (C), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abhishek Poral (WK), Surya Kumar Yadav, B Indrajith, Hrithik Shukin, Manav Sathar, Gaurav Yadav, Vishek Vijay Kumar, Anshul Khambuj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Jodyal, Arian K. Markande (), Sandeep Warrier.

India D: Shreyas Lair (C), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikal, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ricky Bhoi, Saranish Jain, Akshar Patel, Arshit Singh, Aditya Thackeray, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat ( WK) Saurabh Kumar.

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