Mumbai: Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina will lock horns as captains of the three teams to take part in the seson-opener Duleep Trophy 2016-17 beginning in August end.
According to a release by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) here, the India Red, India Blue and India Green will be led by Yuvraj, Gambhir and Raina, respectively. All fixtures will be day-night and will be played at Shahid Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
It may be noted that none of these players have been picked for the T20S against West Indies to be played in the states. They last played for India during WorldT20. Gambhir has not played for India for a while as well. The matches will be a good practice for the players as India will be having a busy home season, where they will be playing 13 Test matches against Australia (4), Bangladesh (1), England (5) and New Zealand (3).
BCCI in March 2016 during their working committee meeting decided that the zonal system will be scrapped and they would pick four teams in round- robin format. The tournament will be played with pink ball as the matches will be played under day-night format.
Fixtures:
August 23-26: India Red vs India Green; August 29-September 1: India Red vs India Blue; September 4-September 7: India Blue vs India Green; September 10-September 14: Final