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Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah has made it clear that players in the national side must make themselves available for domestic engagements when they are not on national duty. But Shah has made exceptions for the likes of Indian captain Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah. The BCCI wants all other Test specialists to play at least one, if not a couple of Duleep Trophy games in August as ideal preparation for the home Tests against Bangladesh and New Zealand.
“This time there is no zonal selection committee for the Duleep Trophy. Only the national selection committee will pick Duleep teams. All test-team contenders will be picked. For Rohit, Virat, and Bumrah, it will be their choice if they want to play or not,” a close source to the BCCI told PTI.
The directive means that the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel and others are expected to be playing in Duleep Trophy.
Meanwhile, India’s key all-rounder, Hardik Pandya, has informed the BCCI that he will not be a part of the ODI series, citing personal reasons. According to reports, the new head coach, Gautam Gambhir, has urged senior players Rohit, Kohli, and Bumrah to be available for ODI series.
Preparation for Duleep Trophy
The Duleep Trophy will be an ideal preparation for India ahead of the two-Test series against Bangladesh followed by a three Test series against New Zealand at home. The series against Bangladesh and New Zealand are crucial as Rohit-led India would want to strengthen their chances of reaching third consecutive World Test Championship (WTC) final.
India are currently at the top of the WTC points table with 74 points and win percentage of 68 whereas defending champions Australia are in the second position with 62 per cent win percentage.
This will be the 17th edition of the Duleep Trophy. It will take place from September 5 to 22. The tournament will be played across six zones. South Zone are the defending champions of the Duleep Trophy.
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