India captain Shubman Gill is set to feature ffor the North Zone in Duleep Trophy 2025 which is set to commence from August 28. The 25-year-old batter from Punjab was included in North Zone's squad that was announced last week. Gill has taken up the challenge of playing the domestic tournament despite just coming back from a gruelling five-match Test series against England.
It was quite a draining series especially for Gill who was captaining the Indian team for the first time in the longest format and had the responsibility of leading the side in the batting department as well. However, despite his poor Test record on foreign soil, Gill delivered big time against England and finished the series as the top-scorer with 754 runs under his belt.
Legendary India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has now hailed Gill for deciding to participate in Duleep Trophy, stating that he is sending the right 'signal' to his team members with this move.
“Shubman Gill captaining the North Zone team is a massive shot in the arm for this tournament. By being available for the tournament, the Indian skipper is sending the right signal to the other members of the team. It would have been understandable if, after a gruelling tour where five Test matches were crammed in a little over six weeks, he had opted to rest," Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
Gill performed incredibly well in England Tests
Gavaskar also couldn't help but lavish praise on Gill's batting in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. The 25-year-old tonked a total of four centuries in the five-match assignment and especially played a key role in the side's first-ever victory at Edgbaston in red-ball cricket. The series would eventually end at 2-2 with the Men in Blue recording a thrilling 6-run victory in the fifth and final match held at The Oval.
“There will be several moments to cherish from the series: Gill’s batting—very rarely do you get to see batting as pure as this—and his captaincy, Stokes’ superhuman efforts with both bat and ball, the Indian fast bowlers’ marathon spells, Joe Root’s classy centuries, Rishabh Pant batting as only he can, as also Harry Brook, and both also chirping as only they can," Gavaskar further wrote.
Meanwhile, there will be many prominent Indian cricketers who will be featuring in Duleep Trophy. The likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Dhruv Jurel, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Akash Deep and Mohammed Shami will all be seen in action in the domestic tournament.