Kolkata: Suresh Raina couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to stage a comeback to the national team after the left-hander was named the captain of the India Blue team for the Duleep Trophy scheduled to be played from 7th to 29th September.
The 30-year from Uttar Pradesh had last played an ODI in 2015 and was overlooked by the selectors for the ongoing limited overs’ series against Sri Lanka.
However, he would have only two four-day games in his hand to prove his credibility with the bat once again. But it is highly unlikely that he would be recalled to the team for the limited overs’ series against Australia scheduled to start from September 17 as he would have his commitments with India Blue to fulfill.
Tamil Nadu opener Abhinav Mukund, who was a part of India’s test squad for the Sri Lanka series few weeks back has been appointed as the captain of India Red. His team consists of the likes of Ranji teammate Dinesh Karthik, Bengal’s Sudip Chatterjee and Ashok Dinda and young talent like Basil Thampi, Rishabh Pant and K Gowtham.
Murali Vijay, who had suffered from a wrist injury failed to make it to India’s squad for the tests against Sri Lanka but finds a place in the India Green side which would be led by wicketkeeper batsman Parthiv Patel.
21-year old Bengal batsman Abhimanyu Easwaran would represent India Blue alongside state-level teammate
Manoj Tiwary.
The squads for the three-team tournament was announced a day after former skipper and CAB President Sourav Ganguly wrote to BCCI’s General Manager MV Sridhar asking him the reason for the absence of the tournament from the domestic calendar.
Just like last year, the tournament which would involve 45 cricketers and would be played with pink balls under floodlights. Delhi batsman and former India opener Gautam Gambhir, who had led India Blue to the Duleep Trophy victory last year hasn’t been named in any of the squads.
The teams-
India Red: Abhinav Mukund (c), Priyank Panchal, Sudip Chatterjee, Ishank Jaggi, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Baba Indrajith, K Gowtham, Karna Sharma, Basil Thampi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Ashok Dinda, Rahul Singh, CV Milind.
India Green: Murali Vijay, R Samarth, P Chopra, Shreyas Iyer, Karun Nair, Ankit Bawne, Parthiv Patel (c), Shahbaz Nadeem, Parvez Rasool, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Sidharth Kaul, Mayank Dagar, Nitin Saini, Aniket Choudhary.
India Blue: Suresh Raina (c), Samit Gohel, KS Bharat, AR Easwaran, Manoj Tiwary, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Ishan Kishan, Jayant Yadav, Bharghav Bhatt, KM Gandhi, Ishant Sharma, Ankit Rajpoot, S Kamat, Jaydev Unadkat.