Uttar Pradesh batter Rinku Singh will bolster the India B squad as most of the Test players selected for the Bangladesh series, except Sarfaraz Khan, have been pulled from the upcoming Duleep Trophy matches set to start on September 12 in Anantapur.
Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Akash Deep are exiting the India A squad and will be replaced by Pratham Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Shaik Rasheed, Shams Mulani, and Aaqib Khan. Mayank Agarwal will take over the captaincy from Gill for India A, and fast bowler Vidhwath Kaverappa will switch to India D for the second round of matches.
India B will also miss Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, and Yash Dayal, whose spots will be filled by Suyash Prabhudessai, Himanshu Mantri, and Rinku Singh. Rinku’s initial omission from all squads had surprised many, but his inclusion for the second round addresses that. Sarfaraz Khan, part of India’s squad for the first Test against Bangladesh, will remain with India B for the Duleep Trophy matches, which conclude on September 15, just ahead of the first Test in Chennai on September 19.
While India C remains unchanged, India D faces adjustments as Axar Patel and Tushar Deshpande are unavailable, the latter due to injury. Vidhwath Kaverappa and Nishant Sindhu have been drafted into their lineup. India’s Test squad will gather in Chennai on September 12 for a training camp ahead of the Bangladesh series.
In the first round of the Duleep Trophy, India B triumphed over India A with Musheer Khan’s stellar 181, while India C beat India D, thanks to a match-winning performance from 22-year-old left-arm spinner Manav Suthar, who took seven wickets in the third innings.
Squads for the 2nd Round of Duleep Trophy Matches:
India A:
Mayank Agarwal (capt), Riyan Parag, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat, Pratham Singh, Akshay Wadkar, Shaik Rasheed, Shams Mulani, Aaqib Khan.
India B:
Abhimanyu Easwaran (capt), Sarfaraz Khan, Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (wk), Rinku Singh, Suyash Prabhudessai, Himanshu Mantri.
India C:
Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (wk), B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Gaurav Yadav, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (wk), Sandeep Warrier.
India D:
Shreyas Iyer (capt), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (wk), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (wk), Saurabh Kumar, Vidhwath Kaverappa, Nishant Sindhu.